Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is soliciting the public\u2019s support to extend the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker program beyond 2019 by asking everyone to sign the Northern Marianas Business Alliance Corp.\u2019s petition endorsing the extension.<\/p>\n
With U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shaving off 3,000 slots from the CW-1 program this fiscal year, the governor immediately rushed to Washington, D.C. last week to seek a reprieve on the CW-1 program.<\/p>\n
NMBAC, a collection of businesses, started a petition last Dec. 1, 2017, to solicit community support on efforts to extend the program beyond 2019.<\/p>\n
In a statement from the Torres administration, the governor asked the community to \u201csave our economy\u201d by signing the petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cSigning this petition represents our community\u2019s collective commitment to ensuring that our livelihoods will not be threatened by federal legislation that needs fixing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have Congress hear our voices together.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the same statement, Torres commended the CNMI House of Representatives for unanimously adopting Rep. Angel A. Demapan\u2019s (R-Saipan) House Joint Resolution 20-07, which support the NMBAC and Torres. The Senate has yet to take action on H.J.R. 20-07.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to the Senate acting on the joint resolution soon,\u201d said Torres, adding that unanimously adopting H.J.R. 20-07 shows that the \u201centire government leadership\u201d is in support.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the right thing to do for the viability of our economy and for every single person who calls these islands home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to Torres, the ultimate goal is for legislation to address the CNMI\u2019s long-term economic needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is too much at stake, and if we don\u2019t come together now as a community, we risk losing the jobs we have created, the opportunities that have arisen, and any sort of economic growth in the long term,\u201d Torres added.<\/p>\n
As for concerns about supporting the CW-1 program, Torres pointed out that access to skilled foreign workers is \u201cnot in conflict\u201d with developing the local workforce and reducing unemployment of U.S. citizens in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does not take away jobs from our local residents and U.S. citizens,\u201d he said, citing statistics obtained from the CNMI Department of Commerce, which cited 1,800 unemployed U.S. citizens in the CNMI. \u201cWith the increased opportunities in our economy, that number will steadily decrease.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres added that even if every single U.S. citizen and local resident were given jobs, including students and the elderly, \u201cwe will still not meet the needs of our economy to develop sustainably so that we can address our longstanding debts and obligations and provide more funding to key areas such as public safety, education, and healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres cited Government Accountability Office reports that concluded that losing the CW-1 program would possibly result in a 62-percent drop in the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026Our economy increased 28.6 percent in 2016 because small and large businesses have the resources to develop local capacity with the existence of a foreign labor force\u2026 [and] we now have more U.S.-eligible workers in our workforce than at any time in our modern economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important now than ever that we remind ourselves where we were a few years ago,\u201d he added, describing the past CNMI economy to be in the \u201cmidst of a deep and persistent economic depression.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur tourism industry was struggling with low number of arrivals. Government revenue was at record lows. [We struggled with] high gas prices [and] rolling blackouts,\u201d he said, adding that both large and small businesses were \u201cstruggling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat matters most to me is how we had to focus our efforts to help the parents who sit there late into the night shaking their heads, filled with stress over how to pay their bills, to provide enough food on that table to feed the family because back then we had no economy. No one deserves to go through that ever again. That\u2019s what we\u2019re fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, the path ahead for our economy will always have its greatest measure in the homes and around the dinner tables of all the families living in our community. This is why we need to make our case to Congress to save our economy and ensure that everyone from our local residents, to our long-term foreign legacy workers, and to everyone who calls these islands home is protected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As of 7:30pm last night, the online petition supporting the governor\u2019s efforts has garnered 479 online signatures.<\/p>\n
According to NMBAC chair Alex Sablan, their petition has garnered \u201cthousands\u201d of signatures while NMBAC member Viola Alepuyo stated that, as of 6pm last Monday, they have garnered over 3,400 signatures, without adding in signatures obtained from the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Society for Human Resource Management CNMI chapter.<\/p>\n
For those interested in supporting the petition, contact Alex Sablan at alex_sablan@tanholdings.com, Velma Palacios at velma.palacios@itehq.net, Gloria Cavanagh at gloria@marianaresort.com, or Josephine Mesta at jmesta@hyattsaipan.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is soliciting the public\u2019s support to extend the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[2377,26,3980,17480],"class_list":["post-266044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-alex-sablan","tag-cnmi","tag-josephine-mesta","tag-nmbac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266044","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}