‘Dim mood in Congress deters passage of CW legislation’

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) is convinced the White House will positively respond to Gov. Eloy S. Inos’ request for consultations with President Barack Obama on the expiring foreign worker program, but concedes that eventual legislation to keep these much needed third country national workers in the CNMI is unclear right now as the U.S. House of Representatives undergoes a messy and contentious fight for new leadership.

“We need a voice and we need workers,” Sablan told reporters after meeting with Inos, Lt. Gov. Ralph Torres, and other administration official yesterday. “We need third country national workers. …I would [like] to see a different program instead of this cap [on workers],” noting that this program would be something similar to the H-visa class.

“It would have been nice if there had been no opposition in the past to my legislation, so that we would have by now a certain number of third country nationals who were at one-time” contract workers, to have “at least a Northern Marianas status where they don’t have to do this annual applications and have to get advance parole to visit their family and come back,” Sablan.

“But of course that is the past; we are talking about the present,” Sablan said. “I would like to see and to help the governor where I can and his special representative whoever may that be.”

Sablan was echoing plans the administration has discussed heading into consultations with the White House, once this is given the green light.

Inos sent last week a letter to Obama requesting direct consultation on issues like the expiring contract worker program, whose expiration in 2019 would potentially zero out the 14,000 non-U.S. citizen workers who live and work in the CNMI and contribute to its economy.

Saipan Tribune has gathered that administration officials have been discussing strategies, even before the letter to Obama was sent, on working toward a work visa that would not be transitory and would be a separate visa class of sorts for the Commonwealth. Consultation with the White House, if approved, and eventual legislation would be a matter of case building, compiling data, and illuminating the needs of the Commonwealth.

“We are going to have to wait to see what [Inos has] negotiated,” Sablan said when asked about what kind of legislation could be passed.

“But as you know,” he added, “the mood in Congress right now is, unfortunately, very dim, as you can see just from the competition or lack of competition for the job of [House] speaker.” He called this “unfortunate.”

Sablan was referring to House Speaker John Boehner’s announced resignation and the contentious battle among Republicans in the House as to who will be the next speaker.

“Time is being wasted,” Sablan said, noting that a group in the House wants candidates for speaker to make promises that they know are impossible to keep.

“They want to put everything through regular order,” Sablan said, referring to boisterous members of the House like the “Freedom Caucus.”

“In Congress there are legislation put up under ‘suspension of the rules’ because if you do regular order all the time, you will never get anything done,” he said. “Even legislation, for example, that has passed the House three or four times—some legislation has done that and goes to the Senate and never gets acted on. So if you are going to put regular order on those legislation, that means you are going to have to start again, conduct a hearing…go through time to debate on the floor—it just makes it more tedious and complicated.

“Some members want a debt reduction promise, …to make drastic cuts so that there will be no increases for anything, there will be no funding for existing programs. But that is money already committed, already spent. If you don’t raise the debt limit, that means the federal government cannot borrow money and then we cannot pay our bills. So, it’s very messy, it’s contentious,” Sablan said.

When asked how legislation regarding contract workers will be passed, Sablan said, “I don’t know.”

“That’s why this 902 negotiation is very important,” he added. “You have to get it done right because once you negotiate, it’s going to require legislation…I don’t know how to get it done. We have to see the end product” of negotiations, he said.

Responding to the call of Esther Kia’ana, the U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas, for “hard numbers” or data to present to Congress to explain the Commonwealth’s dire need for workers, Sablan acknowledged that the CNMI does need those numbers but noted that the key number is “218 [votes] in the House and 60 in the Senate.”

“That’s the key number,” he added.