Babauta vows to fight for lobby funds

Throwing support in the plea by business leaders to earmark funds for a lobbying campaign in Washington D.C., the House leadership has vowed to pursue the issue during budget talks with the Senate.

House Floor Leader Oscar M. Babauta emphasized the need to continue services of a lobbying firm in the nation’s capital amid constant threats of federal takeover of local immigration and minimum wage as well as removal of trade privileges provided in the Covenant.

He said that while it is up to the governor to decide who to hire to defend the CNMI, critics of the decision to engage lobbyists from Preston Gates must weigh the importance of protecting local interests.

“They have to realize that a federal takeover will create an adverse impact on the lives of our people in terms of our future as Commonwealth,” Mr. Babauta told in an interview.

Five influential business groups on the islands under the Western Pacific Economic Council or WEPC have already appealed to senators not to take away $700,000 set aside by the lower house for a lobbying campaign currently being carried out by Preston Gates.

The funds were shifted to other programs and projects being endorsed by the Senate under the FY 2001 budget measure, including implementation of the free trade zones plan.

A bicameral conference is set to be held to hammer out an agreement between the House and the Senate on the spending package which has derailed for the last two months due to differences on how to divide the $221.66 million projected revenues this year.

But Mr. Babauta stressed it would be difficult to undertake such programs without assuring investors that economic tools like control over local immigration and minimum wage would continue to exist in the next several years.

“This is unfortunate if the issue of eliminating the lobbying efforts in the country’s capital is not addressed because all our efforts to revitalize the economy will go down the drain should that takeover occur,” he explained.

“So we can say good-bye to free trade zone and to the newly passed law granting incentives to investors if our control over immigration and minimum wage is removed from our hands,” added the Saipan lawmaker.

Echoing the business community’s sentiment on the politics in the United States, Mr. Babauta noted it would be best to have the CNMI’s concerns heard regardless of whether Republicans assume control of both the White House and Congress.

“This calls for more diligent effort in pursuing the Commonwealth’s interest because the federal takeover threat will not cease,” he said.

CNMI leaders are pinning hopes that Texas Gov. George W. Bush will eventually prevail in the still-undecided race for the White House as Republicans have been more sympathetic to the islands’ conditions.

The Covenant, which established the political relations between the Northern Marianas and the United States and gave local control over immigration and minimum wage, has come under close scrutiny in Washington in recent years.

President Clinton and the Democrats in Congress are pushing for federal takeover of these functions due to alleged failure by the CNMI to curb the number of foreign workers and stem labor abuses here.