Pete A: NMI losing credibility in DC

Washington Rep. Pedro A. Tenorio on Friday lamented the Commonwealth’s eroding credibility in the nation’s capital.

Tenorio, in his speech before the Legislature, said the CNMI government’s involvement in the Abramoff lobbying scandal had seriously tainted the islands in the eyes of many U.S. Congress members.

Even the CNMI delegate bill was being derailed because of volatile political climate created by scandal, he added.

“With all of [the] negative reports, the positives of our culture and the good deeds and actions of many of our people, including the sacrifices that our young men and women are providing while serving in the U.S. Armed Services, go unnoticed and unrecognized,” he said. “We are in a grave predicament of losing our credibility and integrity as a people after working so hard to rebuild them.”

As a result, he said, rallying support for CNMI issues had become “10 times harder.”

Tenorio said that the CNMI delegate bill, for instance, could not be put to a floor vote despite having broad bipartisan support because the House majority considered it to be “radioactive.”

“There is a pervasive fear, by our strongest supporters in Congress, that bringing this bill to a vote will initiate discussions on partisan and political topics that have nothing to do with the bill. The lobbying scandal linking our Commonwealth with convicted lobbyists is the unspoken culprit, hideously threatening our hope for a voice in Congress,” he said.

According to Tenorio, an improved labor and immigration system and a local minimum wage increase should help improve the Commonwealth’s image in Washington, D.C.

“Diligent and consistent enforcement of our [labor and immigration] laws is our best weapon in defending ourselves against the negative effects of bad press and scandals,” he said.

He added, “I realize that the notion of increasing minimum wage especially in these tough economic times is unpopular and untimely. But a wage system that is locally enacted and responsive to the economic and financial realities of our Commonwealth is much more preferable and advantageous than the imposition of a federal minimum wage system that has no relevance to our economic environment.”

A federally enacted wage system, he warned the local government, could be forced upon the CNMI regardless of who holds the majority in the U.S. Congress.