US lawmakers to visit CNMI, Guam in August

Guam Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo has announced that members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife, which she currently chairs, will be visiting the CNMI and Guam in August.

Bordallo made the announcement prior to hearing testimony from nine witnesses on Tuesday’s subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C. on the implementation of Public Law 110-229 or the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008.

P.L. 110-229 places the CNMI under the federal immigration system and creates a Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program that will take effect on Nov. 28, 2009, instead of the original implementation date of June 1, 2009.

“We will be visiting both the CNMI and Guam in August so be prepared for our visit,” said Bordallo.

She said ranking Republican member, Rep. Henry E. Brown Jr. of South Carolina, will be joining the trip ahead.

CNMI Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” C. Sablan is also a member of the subcommittee.

If the August trip moves forward as planned, it will be the second time that members of the subcommittee will be traveling to the CNMI in less than two years.

On Aug. 15, 2007, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs then chaired by Rep. Donna Christensen of the U.S. Virgin Islands held a first ever congressional hearing on Saipan to obtain testimony on H.R. 3079 or the Northern Mariana Islands Immigration, Security and Labor Act, ISLA.

ISLA later became part of an omnibus bill that is now the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008.

Besides Christensen, other subcommittee members who traveled to Saipan for the 2007 historic hearing were Bordallo and American Samoa Rep. Eni Faleomavaega.

The planned August 2009 trip of the subcommittee will come ahead of the Nov. 28 scheduled start of the transition to federalization in the CNMI, unless the implementation date is further delayed by legislative action as requested at the hearing by CNMI Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, Guam Gov. Felix P. Camacho, Guam Vice Speaker Benjamin J.F. Cruz, DFS Pacific Division director Jim Beighly, and Saipan Chamber of Commerce president James T. Arenovski.

They were five of nine witnesses invited to testify at the hearing, which lasted three hours, starting at 10am on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. (from 12 midnight to 3am Wednesday on Saipan).

The other witnesses were Dr. David Gootnick, director of the Government Accountability Office’s International Affairs Trade; Nikolao Pula, acting deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs; Richard C. Barth, acting principal deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and David Cohen, a former deputy assistant secretary for Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs.