DRAFT The Speaker The House of Representatives Washington, D.C. Dear Mr. Speaker: £ 2 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