Gov. Ralph DLG Torres disclosed yesterday there is legislation floating in U.S. Congress that could impose financial controls over the local government through a federal government board or commission, possibly infringing on the CNMI\u2019s right to self-government and right to steer its own economy. <\/p>\n
Torres met with Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) yesterday on the matter, saying the issue ties into Puerto Rico and \u201ctheir bankruptcy\u201d or legislation proposed to help ease the territory\u2019s financial crisis.<\/p>\n
Sablan confirmed with Saipan Tribune that he did meet with Torres on issues from China\/Russia parole, contract worker issues, 902 consultations, \u201cand about the potential for an April 12, 2016, introduction of a bill addressing the Puerto Rico fiscal situation.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cCongress is considering legislation that will provide an oversight board appointed by the President,\u201d Sablan confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut,\u201d Sablan cautioned, \u201cbill language to that effect has not been fully and finally drafted and is not expected to be introduced until April 12, 2016 at the earliest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sablan also said there were no discussions about a Puerto Rico bailout since Congress\u2014as far as is being discussed by leadership and by the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico himself\u2014will not provide any bailout legislation for Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
\u2018Infringing on self-government\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Independent sources with knowledge of the matter cast varying points of views on the effects of the potential legislation, saying on one end that the issue is still in its \u201cearly\u201d stages and that the language of the bill is still in \u201cflux,\u2019 but that on the other end, the proposed amendment could give the financial board the opportunity for the federal government to come in unilaterally and make changes\u2014to the local tax code for example\u2014without local government input.<\/p>\n Torres said he wrote a letter a couple of months ago on the Puerto Rico matter, referring to a Jan. 4 letter to Sablan that stated the CNMI\u2019s position on whether they wanted federal bankruptcy law apply to the CNMI as part of proposed law to deal with the Puerto Rico debt crisis. <\/p>\n The January letter to Sablan notes that \u201cif oversight and\/or control measures contained in the legislative proposal referenced in your letter were also applicable to the CNMI,\u201d the fundamental relationship between the CNMI and the U.S. as set out in the NMI Covenant would be \u201cinappropriately weakened and destabilized.\u201d<\/p>\n Torres indicated yesterday the issue has come around again, despite the CNMI\u2019s position on the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cBut,\u201d Torres said yesterday, \u201cthere seems like there is another avenue that still imposes the CNMI to be a part of this commission or board that looks at our state of economy here [where] we still fall under the commission.\u201d<\/p>\n Torres said his conversation with Sablan was on \u201cwhere does the CNMI, where do we want be,\u2019 or their position on a bill \u201cthat\u2019s incorporated the Northern Mariana Islands.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026Again this is back to self-government, self-sovereignty, and this whole thing is becoming an issue that we will be taking a course of action in the next few days on whether to move forward and put it to question,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n Asked to elaborate further, Torres said, \u201cThere is a bill that imposes [that] the CNMI be a part of this board or commission\u201d that \u201ceither mandates us or regulates us on how our economy\u201d works.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is infringing on a lot of our self-determination,\u201d Torres stressed. \u201cWe do have that under our Covenant, self-government. That\u2019s what we are questioning now. And I am concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n Torres is troubled with the \u201ctotality\u201d of local to federal issues including the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, which essentially turned Northern Island waters and islands to federal property, issues of immigration control, which Torres said was \u201ctaken away,\u201d along with the CNMI\u2019s rights to its submerged lands. This \u201ctotality,\u201d Torres acknowledges also ties into this week\u2019s federal court ruling that found the CNMI\u2019s handgun ban unconstitutional despite the CNMI availing it for 30 to 40 years, and proposed military buildup on NMI islands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are now having a bill before us to include us with Puerto Rico\u2019s issues,\u201d Torres said. <\/p>\n \u201cI think we should be treated differently,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Larger questions<\/strong><\/p>\n Torres\u2019 comments yesterday tie into larger frustrations Capital Hill officials have been raising with the NMI Covenant, as some have expressed an eroding confidence in its ability to guarantee self-government or a sovereignty that many have thought the Covenant uniquely, among other territories, allowed for.<\/p>\n The proposed bill that Torres has contested also taps in larger questions on how much U.S. Congress can unilaterally control or regulate the affairs of the CNMI, despite whatever the negotiations and the existence of the NMI Covenant supposedly guaranteed.<\/p>\n A case before the U.S. Supreme Court, also involving Puerto Rico, has signaled the U.S. government\u2019s official position on the \u201cfull legislative power\u201d and \u201cplenary authority\u201d that U.S Congress has over the U.S territories.<\/p>\n The case centers on whether the U.S. and local governments can charge an individual for the exact same crime, tying into the issue of overlapping sovereigns.<\/p>\n U.S government lawyers add a footnote to clarify that territories mean \u201cPuerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin islands, and a number of small, uninhabited outlying islands.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. government lawyers argued, in a filing last December, that Congress\u2019 plenary authority over federal territories includes the \u201cauthority to permit self-government, whereby local officials administer a territory\u2019s internal affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCongress has \u2018full legislative power\u2019 over the territories and \u2018may at its discretion, intrust [sic] the territory that power to the legislative assembly of a Territory.\u201d <\/p>\n But when Congress does so, local officials exercise \u201cpower conferred\u201d on them, \u201cnot any inherent sovereign power of the territory.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd \u2018the extent of the power thus granted\u2019 is up to Congress, \u2018at all times subject to such alterations as Congress may see fit to adopt\u2019,\u201d the U.S. government argues, citing previous case law.<\/p>\n The U.S. government also said a Presidential Task Force has assessed Puerto Rico\u2019s political status and future, to which 2007 and 2011 task forces reached the same conclusion.<\/p>\n Because Puerto Rico is a \u201cterritory,\u201d the U.S. government explains, Congress could \u201ccontinue the current system indefinitely, but it also may revise or revoke it at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n The federal government may relinquish United States sovereignty by granting independency or ceding the territory to another nation, or it may admit a territory as a state. But \u201cthe U.S. Constitution does not allow other options.\u201d<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the Atlantic reported on this issue, calling Puerto Rico the largest of the territories and the one subject to the bulk of legal debate as \u201ccomes up against the legal, governmental, and financial limits of its status.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cPuerto Rico doesn\u2019t have access to financial instruments available both to states and to sovereign nations,\u201d said Carlos Iv\u00e1n Gorr\u00edn Peralta, a professor at the InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico and a territorial-law scholar, said in the article. \u201cIt is in essence in a straight jacket\u2026The issue is whether Puerto Rico has some form, vestige, or mirage of sovereignty, despite the fact that the Supreme Court [of Puerto Rico] has felt that it is an unincorporated territory subject to the plenary powers of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gov. Ralph DLG Torres disclosed yesterday there is legislation floating in U.S. Congress that could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,50,90,139],"class_list":["post-224475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-power","tag-puerto-rico","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224475","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}