The Northern Marianas now have rights to their 3-mile submerged lands after US President Barack Obama signed a bill conveying it to the CNMI.
The CNMI's delegate to the US Congress, Gregorio Kilili Sablan says the people of the CNMI have always believed the lands and waters surrounding their islands, which for millennia their ancestors used and preserved, belonged to the Commonwealth.
A federal court ruling in 2005 rejected the islands' ownership of submerged lands to 3 miles off the coast.
But the signing into law of S.256, changes that and Mr Sablan says the submerged lands now again belong to the CNMI.
The same bill also delayed a 50-cent minimum wage increase on September the 30th and in 2015.
It means that the minimum wage in the CNMI will remain at 5 dollars and 55 cents an hour until the next scheduled 50-cent increase on September the 30th next year.
