{"id":402552,"date":"2023-12-20T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=402552"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Senate-OKs-EVS-TAP-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Senate-OKs-EVS-TAP-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate OKs EVS-TAP resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate adopted yesterday a resolution to request Gov. Arnold I. Palacios to advocate for the increased security of the tourism industry, while promoting economic recovery, through the promulgation of the CNMI Economic Vitality &amp; Security Travel Authorization Program for Chinese tourists.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during yesterday\u2019s Senate session, Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian), who is the author of Senate Joint Resolution 23-07, thanked for the meeting Senate President Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero\u2019s (D-Saipan) called last week, when they heard from officials of the Hotel Association of the NMI, Saipan Chamber of Commerce, and the Society for Human Resources Management.<\/p>\n<p>At that meeting, business community representatives talked about the challenges their members are having and other issues the CNMI is facing with the economy.<\/p>\n<p>Hofschneider said he believes those who participated in the discussion support their joint resolution\u2019s request and will continue working to revive the tourism industry and the CNMI\u2019s economy recovery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is one component of that effort to hopefully rebound\u2026our economy here. And this is something that is critical at this juncture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent joint letter addressed to CNMI leaders, HANMI and the Chamber urged the CNMI government to back the proposed EVS-TAP, as this, according to the groups, will address the concerns about the discretionary parole program.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed EVS-TAP will allow prescreened People\u2019s Republic of China nationals to travel to the CNMI without a visa under specific conditions.<\/p>\n<p>EVS-TAP was one of the recommendations of 902 Consultation special representatives in their report dated May 15, 2019 to then-president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Four U.S. senators and 28 U.S. House members signed a letter dated Nov. 30, 2023, requesting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to revoke the discretionary parole program that allows it to let Chinese tourists enter the CNMI without a tourist visa.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/b7c13d9409b5731cc74ff0c974cdfc50.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian), extreme left, talks about the need for the adoption of his Senate Joint Resolution to request Gov. Arnold I. Palacios to advocate for the promulgation of the CNMI Economic Vitality &amp; Security Travel Authorization Program for Chinese tourists, during a Senate session yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>-FERDIE DE LA TORRE<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate adopted yesterday a resolution to request Gov. Arnold I. Palacios to advocate for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402552","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\/402552","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=402552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}