CNMI braces for oversight hearing in Washington D.C.

Northern Marianas leaders yesterday underscored the significance of the oversight hearing scheduled by the U.S. Senate Energy and Resources Committee late next month on local immigration policy, saying this may be an opportunity to present recent reforms undertaken on the island.

While the CNMI government has yet to prepare for the July 27 hearing, legislators believe only a small delegation headed by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio will likely travel to Washington D.C.

This will be the second hearing in one and half year on the Commonwealth’s labor and immigration standards following the inquiry conducted by the same Senate committee in March last year to address the proposed federal takeover bill then pending in the Congress.

“This will be an important opportunity to explain to the U.S. Congress and the committee what we have done in the past year,” Senate President Paul A. Manglona said in an interview, “and to show them that we have now a better handle of the situation unlike two years ago.”

He maintained the position papers to be submitted during the hearing will highlight local efforts to improve immigration affairs and curb labor abuses that have been the major contention by opponents of CNMI’s administration of these functions.

“We will go there and report that we have come a long way in the last year and a half,” Manglona added.

The hearing is expected to draw attention on latest steps taken by the island government to reduce the number of guest workers in the CNMI since the bill up for committee deliberation will seek application of federal immigration laws here as proposed by its chairman, Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska).

The Energy and Resources Committee has jurisdiction over Northern Marianas and other U.S. insular areas.

Saying that he’s “fed up” with the spate of takeover proposals in the Congress, Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes said he would not join the delegation to the hearing, but expressed optimism over its attempt to persuade the nation’s legislators against the move.

Tenorio, House Speaker Diego T. Benavente and Manglona should head the team which is necessary to present the views of the indigenous population, according to the senator.

Reyes was part of the delegation that testified at last year’s hearing. “I’m not going this time because I am fed up with the federal government. I just think that my going there is not helping the CNMI and it is just a waste of my time and public funds.”

He, however, stressed this hearing is the only chance by the island government to refute allegations leveled by its critics — actions which they have been doing to lobby support for the CNMI.

“We always hope for the best that they will listen to what we are saying,” Reyes explained, noting that they have managed to sway to its favor Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), Murkowski’s counterpart in the House of Representatives, and other members of his Natural Resources Committee when they visited the island last February.

“We want to show Murkowski that whatever information he is receiving from the Department of the Interior… is grossly outdated and it’s a Xerox copy of what they have been providing the Congress for many years,” the senator added.