Oversight hearing on federalization delay questioned

Posted on Mar 08 2009

Taotao Tano CNMI Association Inc. president Gregorio Cruz Jr. has asked U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate Donna Christensen, chair of the House Insular Affairs Subcommittee, about the reason for considering an oversight hearing on delaying federalization by 180 days.

Cruz, in a March 6 letter to Christensen, said holding an oversight hearing to further delay federalization set for June 1 “is an outright mockery and contradictory to the actual intent and purpose of Public Law 110-229.”

“If billions of funding are appropriated financing the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, we see no reason why $96 million would be a problem to the Department of Homeland Security financing border security concerns in the Northern Mariana Islands,” said Cruz.

Taotao Tano is the only entity to formally ask DHS not to delay federalization, among those who submitted comments to DHS’s interim final rule on the establishment of U.S. ports in the CNMI and the establishment of a Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program.

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