‘Workforce challenges’ brought up with codel

Workforce challenges and Super Typhoon Yutu recovery remain the largest issue in the CNMI, according to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, which raised these points with the congressional staff delegation during their brief information-collecting trip to the CNMI.

The congressional delegation was composed of five congressional staff members representing their respective offices in the U.S. Congress. They were here last week to gather information on the CNMI’s issues.

Among such meetings with government entities were meetings with organizations, including the Saipan Chamber of Commerce last Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019. All meetings, as Saipan Tribune observed, were closed-door meetings.

The Chamber told Saipan Tribune in a statement that the general message they conveyed to the delegation was the ongoing workforce challenges that impact the entire economy.

“Businesses are making efforts to hire and train qualified U.S. citizens, but this is a process that takes time in order to stabilize our fluctuating economy. As a community, we have made some progress. However, we still lack the capacity on island, so these are issues we continue to face in the interim as they are trying their best to stay afloat,” the Chamber noted in the statement, including how businesses are recovering from late October 2018’s Super Typhoon Yutu.

“We asked for their help in expediting the processing of CW-1 renewals to help employers and employees. We also informed them there are some provisions in the [CNMI Workforce Act of 2018] which we need clarification to make sure we are complying with the new statute,” the Chamber noted.

As of publication, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has yet to publish new regulations governing the law, which was enacted in late June 2018. It ultimately extended the CW program for the CNMI as well as added more slots starting fiscal year 2020.

With only two months remaining before the start of fiscal year 2020, USCIS has yet to publish the new regulations. The federal agency told Saipan Tribune in a previous statement that they have yet to confirm a date for publishing new regulations, which would include major tweaks to the CW visa based on the visa holder’s length of legal stay in the CNMI.

“Businesses will eventually have to decide whether to continue their operations and, without businesses open and paying taxes, it will continue to impact the CNMI government’s revenue and their ability to operate for our community. Unfortunately, this is a revolving cycle, so we need to support our businesses and ask them to keep pushing through during this time of uncertainty,” the Chamber noted in their statement to Saipan Tribune.