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Military set to meet with lawmakers
Members of the U.S military are set to meet with legislators on Capital Hill this Thursday.
Demapan
In a memorandum, Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) said the House Committee on Federal and Foreign Relations, which he chairs, will meet with Robert M. Scher, Department of Defense assistant secretary for strategy, plans, and capabilities.
According to the memorandum, the meeting will allow the committee members to raise concerns.
Demapan confirmed the meeting, but said there is no specific agenda “at this time.”
“There is no specific agenda at this time. I am only aware that Assistant Secretary Scher will be on island to meet with Governor [Eloy S.] Inos and other officials. As a result, the Joint Region Marianas office contacted my office to arrange a visit to the legislature as well,” Demapan said.
“I will ask the committee and the rest of the members to prepare any concerns regarding ongoing military plans so that we can present them to the Assistant Secretary.”
EIS consultant
The consultant to review a draft environmental impact statement for proposed military activities in the CNMI has, meanwhile, signed the contract for the service.
The Inos administration last week confirmed the selection of a consultant to handle a third-party review of a draft EIS on military activities on Tinian and Pagan.
Press secretary Ivan Blanco said that Dentons, a global law firm, is the consultant selected to review thousands of pages of draft EIS documents on proposed live-fire training.
Blanco said the consultant has submitted and signed the contract for the service. The Office of Procurement and Supply has the contract. “The ball is now with the government,” Blanco said, adding that contract price and other details will also be made public “soon.”
It was reported that Dentons had submitted a joint application for environmental impact consultant job with Environmental Science Associates, or ESA, an environmental science and planning firm.
Notably, Dentons assisted the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Guam Preservation Trust in suing the U.S. Department of Defense to prevent the building of live-fire range complexes on Pagat, an ancient Chamorro village in Guam.
