A total of 130 individuals have been temporarily taken off the food stamp list of recipients within a two-month period, some for not even trying to find a job or showing up for a job interview as required, according to CNMI Labor secretary-nominee Edith DeLeon Guerrero yesterday after a Senate committee public hearing on her appointment.<\/p>\n
DeLeon Guerrero is also asking the Nutrition Assistance Program to extend from the current 30 days to six months the period wherein non-compliant food stamp recipients are temporarily taken off the list to help reduce dependence on the program and help promote self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is such a relaxed policy,\u201d DeLeon Guerrero said, referring to the one-month temporary off-list policy. \u201cThere\u2019s no way that we\u2019re going to wean them off the system if we have a revolving door policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of yesterday, NAP has yet to decide on DeLeon Guerrero\u2019s request to extend the 30-day off-list policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I will definitely be on top of this matter since this is just one of the many transformation initiatives that I am pushing for at the state level,\u201d DeLeon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
NAP, which is under the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, administers the federally funded program in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
DeLeon Guerrero, as acting Labor secretary, also has the daunting task of collaborating with other workforce stakeholders in ensuring that over 10,000 U.S. workers will be ready to take over the jobs currently held by foreign workers.<\/p>\n
If the U.S. Labor secretary does not grant the CNMI government\u2019s request to extend the transitional CW program beyond Dec. 31, 2014, the Commonwealth would lose immediate access to some 12,000 foreign workers\u2014unless these positions are filled with qualified U.S. workers.<\/p>\n
Based on the 2010 U.S. Census data, unemployment rate in the CNMI is 11.2 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 10,711 of the total population are not in the employment workforce. You can see the scale in terms of how many individuals are not working as of Census 2010 data,\u201d DeLeon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n
[B]Noncompliance[\/B]<\/p>\n
On the first round of detailed reporting since DeLeon Guerrero became acting labor secretary on Oct. 3, the CNMI Department of Labor reported 68 non-compliant food stamp recipients. <\/p>\n
These were followed by three other reports with non-compliant food stamp beneficiaries of 46, 12, and four. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe total non-compliant recipients Labor reported to NAP is 130,\u201d DeLeon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n
At least 84 other individuals have pending compliance report as of yesterday, additional data from DeLeon Guerrero\u2019s office show.<\/p>\n
DeLeon Guerrero, whose nomination as Labor secretary drew strong support from community members yesterday on Capital Hill, said that extending the period of suspension will help ensure that able-bodied individuals \u201cbecome self-sufficient and truly engaged in the workforce community so that they can feed their family with their hard-earned dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said people who qualify to receive food stamp ought to receive assistance, but there are also things that these recipients need to do.<\/p>\n
And as workforce stakeholders, Labor needs to encourage people to \u201cwork and produce that income for the family\u201d so that they\u2019re able to buy their own car, build their own home, or send their children to college.<\/p>\n
The Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Government Investigations, headed currently by acting chair Sen. Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota), received testimony from the public yesterday morning\u2014all in support of DeLeon Guerrero\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n
Senators also took turns asking her questions.<\/p>\n
One of them, Senate floor leader Ray Yumul (Ind-Saipan), said it\u2019s not only about training U.S. workers but also about having private sector employers hiring them.<\/p>\n
Overall, the panel is poised to recommend DeLeon Guerrero\u2019s confirmation to the full Senate.<\/p>\n
Acting Senate president Victor Hocog (R-Rota) said the Senate may hold a session on Friday, depending on the outcome of the EAGI Committee\u2019s public hearings on DeLeon Guerrero\u2019s nominations and that of others, including Superior Court associate judge-nominee Teresa Kim-Tenorio, set for 10am today.<\/p>\n
In an interview after the public hearing yesterday, DeLeon Guerrero said she believes in performance, accountability, and success.<\/p>\n
In her statement before the committee, DeLeon Guerrero said she does not come with the attitude of \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for me\u201d but rather, \u201cwhat is best and needed to be done to bring the CNMI state in good standing with its federal grantor so that employment and training dollars intended for those that are in need are not jeopardized.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also cited 15 specific plans for Labor, including implementation of \u201ctransformation changes\u201d where \u201cbusiness is no longer as usual\u201d and \u201creducing food stamp dependency.\u201d<\/p>\n
[B]Changes[\/B]<\/p>\n
Before her appointment as acting Labor secretary, DeLeon Guerrero was executive director of the Workforce Investment Agency from 2006 to Oct. 2, 2013.<\/p>\n
Gov. Eloy Inos merged WIA with Labor, and appointed DeLeon Guerrero to head Labor. Her nomination requires the Senate\u2019s advice and consent.<\/p>\n
In a recent two-day job fair, Labor saw over 450 individuals coming out looking for work.<\/p>\n
But in the CNMI Labor\u2019s system, there\u2019s 1,742 individuals that have registered looking for work, DeLeon Guerrero told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking carefully at all JVAs [job vacancy announcements] and which individuals are qualified for those positions. We\u2019re making referrals to companies in the private sector,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
There have been private sector firms that were called in or warned for not complying with local labor laws related to hiring of qualified U.S. workers, she added.<\/p>\n
U.S. Public Law 110-229, the law that placed CNMI immigration under federal control, \u201cdid not preempt the local labor laws,\u201d DeLeon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n
One of the provisions in the CNMI labor law that is under review is the exemptions for small companies to hire at least one U.S. worker if they have less than five employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, if you have been licensed to do business in the Commonwealth for three years and more, you must have at least one U.S. citizen employee,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A total of 130 individuals have been temporarily taken off the food stamp list of recipients within a two-month period, some for not even trying to find a job or showing up for a job interview as required, according to CNMI Labor secretary-nominee Edith DeLeon Guerrero yesterday after a Senate committee public hearing on her appointment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}