Fitial points to success as Congress ends

House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial (R-Saipan) yesterday said that the Commonwealth had achieved all its legislative goals during the 106th Congress, which ended last Friday.

“Hard work and perseverance have delivered us from triple disasters- a minimum wage that would have doubled overnight, the loss of our immigration authorities to the INS, and the end of tariff free access to the U.S. market. Any one of them would have plunged the economy into a hole we would still be in many years later,” he said

“These threats were always clear to anyone with his eyes open. When the U.S. House and Senate voted to raise the federal minimum wage, Democrats tried to raise our local minimum wage to $6.25. When the Senate passed the Murkowski bill, we faced loss of immigration control if the House agreed. Everyone knows that adoption of the Franks bill, with over half the House as co-sponsors, would have meant the end of duty free access for our products,” he added.

According to Mr. Fitial, “The idea that being nice to those who pushed these measures would lead to a happy ending was always an exercise in self delusion. Happily, neither the business community- acting through the Western Pacific Economic Council- nor the Legislature believed in fairy tales. The business community acted first, when our own government would not. Then the House Leadership group traveled to Washington to appeal to friends and foe alike. But we didn’t rely on one set of visits. We found the funds to hire expert help in Washington. Using them, we fought back.”

“The results are now in-minimum wage votes in both Houses but no application to the CNMI; the Murkowski bill killed in the House Committee; and the Franks bill never coming to a vote despite its many sponsors. Those results were the product of persistent lobbying, not luck. They built on goodwill, but never relied on it exclusively.”

The speaker said that the CNMI will continue to need such help in the next Congress. “I am constantly amused by the argument that a Republican president and a Republican Congress mean the end of all our troubles. Remember that it was a Republican Senate that passed the Murkowski bill – unanimously. Republican control in the both houses of Congress is based on the thinnest of margins. And our new president will be under pressure to produce bipartisan victories in a number of areas. What do we think the Democrats will ask in return? We know they pushed these anti-CNMI bills right up to the last days of the Congress that just ended.”

“We cannot expect our friends to do our work for us. We want their help, but we should be there to ask for it when it is required and provide the necessary support. We simply cannot do that from Saipan. And I have no confidence whatsoever that our Resident Representative, who has never fought these threats before, will interrupt his election campaign to do what be done on a daily basis,” he explained.

“Our success in this Congress was the result of smart policy, not serendipity. We need to continue that policy if we expect to survive economically. Our business community realizes that. The remainder of our political community needs to be convinced-once again-that using professional help in Washington is an intelligent long term investment in out future,” according to Mr. Fitial.