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Kilili: NMI protected from oversight board
New draft of Puerto Bill includes ‘Covenant protections’
U.S. Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan said Saturday that a U.S. House of Representatives bill aimed to provide financial oversight board to Puerto Rico has been redrafted with language specifically to prevent the bill from being interpreted in any way to weaken or change the CNMI Covenant.
Sablan provided the update on the legislation aimed to help the ailing Puerto Rico, which has succumbed to over $70 million, in his newsletter on Saturday. He said the redrafted bill, H.R. 700, now has “specific language” that Sablan had insisted on.
In an earlier draft, Congress was allowed to create a financial oversight board in the Northern Marianas or any U.S. territory, this would be a “clear violation” of the mutual consent provision of the Covenant, Sablan said, since the oversight board would be part of the local government and since the Covenant requires that the Northern Marianas to agree to any change in the structure of our local government,
In an interview, Sablan also discussed another provision that requires “a resolution by our legislature signed by our governor” to establish this oversight board.
This means it has to be “an affirmative act of our government here to have an oversight board,” he said.
“If we are getting to a point where we would need an oversight board, the federal government would be able to twist our arm because we would be in such a bad position that we wouldn’t have any choice,” Sablan told Saipan Tribune.
The CNMI government reportedly has a $300-million deficit, and another $700 million with settlement payments owed to the NMI Retirement Fund.
Sablan is “happy that we are in the bill” because there would be separate provisions of the bill that will address benefits and programs that will be extended to the NMI.
Reiterating his appreciation of administration of President Barack Obama’s support to include the CNMI in earned income tax credits program, Sablan noted that he had introduced legislation with this aim early last year. The bill would have EITC made applicable to the U.S. territories and the cost of the program be charged to the federal government.
