{"id":230234,"date":"2016-06-17T06:05:39","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T20:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=230234"},"modified":"2016-06-17T06:05:39","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T20:05:39","slug":"potochney-confident-902-report-will-inform-obama-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/potochney-confident-902-report-will-inform-obama-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Potochney confident 902 report will inform Obama of concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pete<\/a>
Pete Potochney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A top Department of Defense official taking part in \u201cSection 902\u201d talks with the local government says he is \u201cconfident\u201d that the consultation will reflect the CNMI\u2019s concerns with proposed Defense live-fire and bombing projects and inform U.S. President Barrack Obama, in a final report targeted out by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Pete Potochney, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Basing, who is also Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment, and local government officials toured the island of Tinian yesterday, where a range of live-fire complexes are proposed, visiting proposed military sites, including the local airport.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at the local airport yesterday afternoon, Potochney was asked about Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 position that the live-fire fire project on Tinian would have to be reworked to be compatible with agreements made between the U.S. and CNMI in the CNMI Covenant and relevant technical agreements.<\/p>\n

Potochney said the 902 process was important for \u201call those reasons\u201d \u201cIt is a function of the Covenant but it also helps us inform, be informed of the concerns of the CNMI\u2019s people. And that\u2019s huge. And having today\u2019s site visit and the whole consultation process allows to us to understand in the best way possible the CNMI\u2019s concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres, for his part, said they got federal officials \u201cto actually see Tinian\u201d and \u201ctour what is being proposed with\u201d their proposed \u201cCNMI Joint Military Training,\u201d or CJMT, program, which includes a bombing range on Pagan.<\/p>\n

The governor believes they \u201cgot things across\u201d on the trip. \u201cWe had lunch together, we had dinner together, a lot of the communication we are doing, echoing concerns, strengthening the relationship\u2026of this consultation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are happy to discuss and address the \u2018Tinian-only\u2019 for the divert airfield,\u201d he also said, before leaving the airport yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a very productive day with both the governor and as well as Mayor [Joey Patrick] San Nicolas,\u201d said Department of Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Esther Kia\u2019aina. \u201cAnd I think as we are looking at the long term for the report to the President, it will be very informative the on the ground meetings both on Tinian as well as Saipan as you know on the multitude of issues we are dealing with.\u201d Kia\u2019ana is Obama\u2019s special representative on the 902 team.<\/p>\n

\u2018Bilateral fix\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the pressing issue of a breached contract worker cap, which is forcing hundreds of workers, not including their families, to leave the CNMI this fiscal year, Kia\u2019aina indicated any immediate fixes would have to be addressed \u201cbilaterally\u201d between Torres and the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

The contract worker crisis was addressed in the first round of 902 talks and the talks are not seen as the avenue for immediate resolutions but for long-term ones, like the extension of the program past its 2019 expiration date.<\/p>\n

Pressed on how workers and families were dying to hear if there are any progress on these any immigration fixes and asked to comment on any progress, Kia\u2019aina said, \u201cNot in my 902 capacity. That would be a better issue for the governor because he is the individual engaged in ongoing discussions with the Department of Homeland Security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other immediate administrative fixes, Torres and his team have asked immigration officials to revise their cap for this fiscal year, from 12,999 to 13,998.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d do this by revising their reduction of the cap this fiscal year, originally at 1,000 to just 1, in order to create applicant space and provide immediate relief to the cap. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A top Department of Defense official taking part in \u201cSection 902\u201d talks with the local…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":230254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[3539,26,1699,1995],"class_list":["post-230234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-cjmt","tag-cnmi","tag-homeland-security","tag-president-barrack-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230234","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=230234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}