Interior must answer NMI questions now!

The US Department of Interior’s persistent agenda is even more focused on kicking every conceivable dirt it could scrounged up up our face. It isn’t interested in what we have to say for obvious reasons: It can’t ram through its agenda via normal Congressional procedure or the 902 venue, so it must find a creative approach to pad its case. It did.

This time, however, it offered a suspect eleven-year transition plan which must have been put together by alleged economic pundits, a vicious plan of destruction of self-government it never even gave the NMI the opportunity to review for input. It’s the usual federal paradigm it uses to impose mandates, an approach that turns participatory democracy on its head. But then this what the leader federal agency does against its enemies, so there’s nothing new up this alley. At any rate, we have a set of questions Interior must answer to our satisfaction in order to begin meaningful exchange:

• “Has Interior, within the last five years, prepared (or had prepared) an economic study of the CNMI that analyzes the economic factors affecting growth in this island community and, in particular, the extent to which reliance on alien laborers is necessary to achieve the standard of living in the community that has been attained over the past few years?

a). If so, will Interior share that report with the CNMI? If not, does Interior plan to conduct such study in the near future?

• “Various Interior reports over the past several years, including the most recent Initiative Report, attach considerable importance to the fact that in recent years the number of alien workers in the CNMI exceeds the number of US Citizens.

a). Does Interior have an absolute number of alien workers — 30,000; 25,000; 20,000 or less – or some percentage of local population — 50%, 40% or lower that it would regard as an acceptable goal given the size of the local population?

b). If Interior has such a goal or objective in mind, we would like to be advised what the basis for that goal is and what level of economic performance is assumed can be achieved with that number (or percentage) of alien laborers.

• As a result of the economic recession in Asia, the CNMI has seen its government revenues fall from about $248 million in 1997 to $230 million in 1998 to a projected $216 million in 1999 and about the same figure is assumed for fiscal year 2000.

a). Has Interior analyzed the impact of its program to enforce US immigration and minimum wage laws in the CNMI on the level of government revenues?

b). If so, will Interior share the results of that analysis with the Commonwealth? If not, does Interior plan to conduct any such analysis in the near future?

c). Does Interior have a goal or objective of maintaining the government revenues in the CNMI at a particular level? If so, what is that goal or objective?

d). How does Interior expect the CNMI to recover from its current economic situation, and regain growth of the early 1990s, if its reliance on alien laborers is reduced significantly in the short term (2-3 years)?

e). Is Interior willing to support Congressional funding for the CNMI to the extent required to enable the CNMI to maintain the standard of living that it has achieved over the past decade?

These are just a few of the fundamental questions I wish to hear economically proven theory from the lead federal agency ill-equipped at building lasting economic investments as manifested in its sterling record of failure in the Micronesian Region. We need not go further than the Federated States of Micronesia whose Compact term expires soon. Ask Interior whether, by the end of the term, the FSM can stand on its feet economically. Louder, please? I have other questions which would be posed in tomorrow’s meeting in this corner of the paper.