US senators back NMI initiatives

A joint letter from four U.S. senators was sent to the Senate Finance committee in support of two of the CNMI’s most crucial economic recovery initiatives: amending Head Note 3(a) and tax cover over, according to CNMI Resident Rep. Pete A. Tenorio yesterday.

Tenorio said he is grateful to senators Pete Domenici, Lisa Murkowski, Jeff Bingaman, and Daniel K. Akaka for their support.

Senator Domenici is the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, where Bingaman is the Ranking Member. Both Murkowski and Akaka are members of the committee.

“It is a strong bipartisan letter and follows up on the hearing the committee held on March 1,” said Tenorio.

The letter explains that “advocating the concerns and needs of the territories is a special responsibility of our committee because, although they are home to nearly 4.4 million U.S. citizens and nationals, they have no representation in the Senate.” It went on to point out that “This status of ‘unincorporated territory’ had profound implications for development. It means that Congress has the flexibility to enact laws that are unconstrained by the Constitution’s requirement that Federal law apply uniformly throughout the states, but instead can enact laws that are tailored to the unique geographic, social, and economic circumstances of each of the territories.”

The letter highlights the need for amending Headnote 3(a), resolving the tax cover over dispute the CNMI has with the U.S. Treasury, and American Samoa’s request to have the Possessions Tax Credit extended.

The senators pointed out that the phase-out of global textile quotas as agreed to with the World Trade Organization is responsible for the decline of the CNMI garment industry, and that reducing the local content requirement would allow more of the manufacturing process to take place in lower-cost foreign facilities while permitting the final assembly and quota-free export of garments to the U.S. to continue.

“This change in law is unlikely to stop the decline of the CNMI’s garment industry, but it should help to slow it and perhaps sustain production of specialized products,” the four said.

Citing Tenorio’s March 1 testimony, the senators asked for the Finance Committee’s help in urging the U.S. Treasury to work with the CNMI to promptly resolve this dispute, negotiating a settlement if necessary.

“This letter is an important step in resolving these two issues. I will be returning to Washington soon to follow up with more meetings,” said Tenorio. “I still have five appropriations requests to follow up on in the House. Only the House Subcommittee on Insular and related areas has acted, and though they were not able to support our request, I will be following up in the main committee and with the Senate.” (Saipan Tribune)