Gregorio Sablan: “Flooding is one of the main threats that climate change poses to coastal states, including the Northern Mariana Islands.”

There is no easy way that our nation will be able to maintain our influence in what is becoming an increasingly strategic, important, and contested area of the world without continuing our partnership with the COFA nations.

I want to commend Chairman Westerman and Ranking Member Grijalva for creating this Indo-Pacific Task Force to provide for a bipartisan process.

I mentioned that the CNMI is facing financial conditions that make our commonwealth again acutely vulnerable to Chinese Communist Party exploitation.

Renewing the financial provisions of the Compact is essential to our nation's security posture in the Indo-Pacific region.