DRAFT
The Speaker
The House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Speaker:
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I am transmitting herewith a proposed Joint Resolution which
would provide Congressional approval of the "Compact of Free
Association", the negotiated instrument setting forth the future
political status of two of the political jurisdictions comprising
the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and their future
relationship with the United States.
is included
The full text of the Compact
in the Joint Resolution.
During the year of 1983, the peoples of the Federated States
of Micronesia,
the Marshall Islands and Palau, which are the three
political jurisdictions of the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands with which the Compact was negotiated, voted in United
Nations-observed plebiscites to approve the Compact.
These
historic votes constituted valid exercises by the peoples of the
Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau of
their right to self-determination.
In each case, the people
expressed a preference for a free association relationship with
the United States over either independence or another kind of
relationship with this country.
These plebiscite results with
respect to the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall
Islands clear the way for approval of the Compact by Congress and
subsequently the implementation of its provisions as to those
jurisdictions.
In the case of Palau, a Palauan judicial