Hastings ‘cautiously optimistic’ on CNMI immigration bill passage

With only 12 congressional session days before the Nov. 4 elections and 15 more days before 2014 ends, visiting U.S. House Natural Resources Committee chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wa) acknowledged yesterday that a time-sensitive CNMI immigration bill would have to deal with “scheduling” issue but he’s “cautiously optimistic” that the bill will pass. Hastings’ committee already passed Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan’s (Ind-MP) H.R. 4296 by unanimous consent in May but the chairman said he will bring the bill to the House leadership’s attention.

If HR 4296 fails to pass Congress and is not signed into law, the CNMI will have to start accepting asylum applications in 2015, which officials and businesses said would hurt the still fragile tourism industry and could catch China’s ire.

Hastings led an eight-member congressional delegation to Saipan from Sunday afternoon to Monday morning, after visiting Australia and New Zealand plus a brief stopover in American Samoa. The delegation included Sablan.

“The next thing we have to do now is scheduling problem, trying to get the bill scheduled so we can have it on the floor. Again, that’s kind of outside of my realm. That’s a leadership issue, not committee chairman issue but we will communicate with the leadership that this is very, very important to the Northern Marianas and hopefully we can get it done,” Hastings said in an interview at the opening of a permanent Garapan public market yesterday morning, before leaving Saipan. The public market is funded by a $200,000 congressional earmark that Sablan obtained.

HR 4296 also extends beyond 2014 the E2-C investor visa program, the CNMI and Guam’s exemption from the national H visa cap and the CW foreign worker program that was already extended administratively.

Hastings acknowledged the importance of a “reliable workforce” for the CNMI, and he said this was the reason why the bill passed his Natural Resources Committee with broad bipartisan support.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that we can pass that bill so you can have a reliable workforce,” Hastings added.

On Sunday night, Hastings, U.S. House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas (R-Ok) and Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs Subcommittee chairman John Fleming (R-La) and the rest of the congressional delegation met with key CNMI business leaders to directly hear their concerns about immigration policies covered in HR 4296. That happened during a welcome dinner reception that Gov. Eloy S. Inos and Sablan co-hosted.

Hastings said he’s very much aware of the issues involved even before he got to Saipan because his committee has jurisdiction over the bill, and the CNMI’s delegate, Sablan, talks to him on a regular basis.

“But it is always good to have local people express to you the importance (of the bill). When we hear from people on the ground, that’s a very important step. But I was aware of the issue and our Committee has already acted on that bill so it’s not like we didn’t know about it,” he said.

Hastings added that the bill’s provision extending the CNMI’s exemption from accepting asylum applications is also “very important to the people here so that will very likely stay in the bill.”

When asked whether there’s option to protect the CNMI if and when the bill fails to pass Congress, Hastings had this to say: Let’s go on the assumption, since the bill came out of Committee on a bipartisan basis, that it will continue through the House.”

“I don’t want to speculate. Afterwards, we have to deal with that at that point. I am cautiously optimistic because it’s so important to this area and our committee has already acted again on a bipartisan basis so I would rather approach it that way,” he added.

Fleming, for his part, said he supports a guest worker program but he also wants to ensure there’s border security.

“It depends on what the final form of the bill is so I really can’t commit to whether I will support it just yet,” he said.

Sablan, as author of HR 4296, said he’s working hard to get floor time for the bill.

“We are aware of the limited time and we will continue to work hard to get it floor time,” he said.

Last year, even with limited session days, a bill that would delay anew a 50-cent minimum wage increase in the CNMI for 2013 was able to pass the U.S. House of Representatives. Sablan said the same effort would be exerted for HR 4296.

Gov. Eloy S. Inos also asked U.S. House Speaker John Boehner in a July letter to prioritize and pass HR 4296.

Besides Hastings, Fleming, Lucas and Sablan, the four other members of the congressional delegation were Chairman Jack Kingston, the third-ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee and Chair of its Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Doug Lamborn, who chairs the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee; Richard Hudson, Chairman of the Transportation Security Subcommittee; and Rob Woodall, Chairman of Rules Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process.