Members of the CNMI Legislature yesterday slammed as yet another threat to its self-governance a proposed rider in an appropriation bill in the U.S. Congress that will amend the tariff-free treatment of local goods as well as make any raise in the federal minimum wage level applicable in the commonwealth.<\/p>\n
Since it will be done through a legislation that will certainly get support from U.S. lawmakers, they said the proposal will undermine the authority of the island government to control its labor and immigration in view of its impact on the CNMI economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are serious implications on our Covenant,\u201d explained House Majority Floor leader Ana S. Teregeyo, referring to the landmark agreement between the Northern Marianas and the U.S. establishing the commonwealth government more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will have serious impact on the commonwealth with respect to our economic development, especially with the present conditions of our economy.\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Diego T. Benavente echoed her concerns, saying CNMI leaders hope to use the visit of U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and other key members of the Congress to appeal against any federal takeover proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in critical times,\u201d he told in an interview, \u201cand the leadership has not really decided on a strategy on how to fight off the proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young, chair of the House Resources Committee which has jurisdiction over the Northern Marianas and other insular areas, will arrive next week on Saipan a year after his initial visit was called off in early 1998.<\/p>\n
According to Benavente, the meeting with the visiting U.S. legislators will determine how the island government will tackle threat of federal takeover which is being pushed by the Clinton administration irked over CNMI\u2019s alleged failure to reform its labor and immigration standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we say and what we show to Chairman Young is probably going to be the most effective tool or strategy which we need to do to fight off those (actions),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Benavente added: \u201cBecause we feel that those legislation are almost certain to pass the Congress, we need to work on an amendment on those legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the proposal is still pending in Washington, some local lawmakers expressed worry that this will finally get through and allow changes in the Covenant, including minimum wage-setting power and the Headnote 3 (a) that provides quota-free, duty-free treatment of garment products from the CNMI to the mainland.<\/p>\n
Rep. Melvin Faisao, chair of the House Federal and Foreign Relations Committee, warned of the negative effect of an increase in the minimum wage level in the CNMI, saying businesses already hurting from the present crisis will be forced to shut down due to high labor costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have included that in the rider provision in a bill that will hurt us the most,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In his proposed budget package for next year, President Clinton earlier has slashed by more than half the federal funds provided to the CNMI under the Capital Improvement Projects for appropriation to Guam.<\/p>\n
House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Karl T. Reyes, likewise, lashed back at Rep. George Miller (D-California), the island\u2019s most vocal critic, for pressing a federalization plan for the CNMI despite failure of his earlier attempts.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell Mr. Miller to prepare giving us $300 million a year from the federal government because there is no business that will survive here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez argued that local problems will be best left for island government to resolve, reiterating his stance against any move to strip CNMI authority over its labor and immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe this is the answer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of the CNMI Legislature yesterday slammed as yet another threat to its self-governance a proposed rider in an appropriation bill in the U.S. Congress that will amend the tariff-free treatment of local goods as well as make any raise in the federal minimum wage level applicable in the commonwealth.<\/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-45461","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\/45461","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=45461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}