I rise today to invite my colleagues to join me in congratulating Ted Radke on the occasion of his 20th year of service on the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors.

I know I speak for all the Members of this chamber when I congratulate Ted Radke for his 20 years of service to the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors.

He has played a pivotal role in the acquisition of a number of key regional parks and trails, significantly contributing to the Park District's acreage increasing by 40,000 acres since 1978.

Allowing Vallejo to use the Solano Project should be a simple matter, but it is not.

water supplies for California cities are extremely limited.

The city of Vallejo simply desires to 'wheel' some of its drinking water through part of the canal.

Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the 'Tribal Self-Governance Amendments of 1999' and am pleased that 22 of our colleagues have cosponsored the legislation.

The U.S./CNMI has morphed into an offshore sweatshop, wrapping itself in the American flag to circumvent quota restrictions and escape payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in duties on imported garments.

The Congress cannot continue to irresponsibly ignore the worsening crisis or the exploitation of tens of thousands of foreign workers on American soil.

Mr. Speaker, today forty seven of our colleagues join Mr. Spratt and myself in introducing the Insular Fair Wage and Human Rights Act of 1999 which will permit the U.S. territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (U.S./ CNMI) to be treated more like a state under certain provisions of law.

Numerous reports by journalists and the media, human rights workers, Federal agencies, religious organizations, and the administrations of Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton have documented widespread human rights abuses suffered by indentured workers in the U.S./CNMI.