Young’s team arrives today

US Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), chairman of the House Resources Committee, along with 26 congressional members and spouses, arrives today on Saipan for a three-day visit considered crucial by CNMI in light of Washington’s fresh plans to introduce a legislation on takeover of local minimum wage and immigration.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio leads commonwealth officials who will welcome Young and participants to the committee’s tour of the Pacific that already took them to American Samoa and Guam. The congressional members are to visit the Marshall Islands after Saipan.

Tenorio said he has high hopes the trip will persuade US lawmakers to go easy on a new proposal the White House plans to introduce to Congress for the application of federal immigration and minimum wage laws to the Northern Marianas.

According to Tenorio, the trip will provide committee members the opportunity to have first hand information on the situation in the Northern Marianas.

“It’s only fair to say that we should be given the opportunity to try to work out something,” the governor said. “We can’t do it overnight, but we are doing it,” he added referring to labor and immigration reforms his administration has put in place to address federal concerns.

The White House is still pushing to place local immigration and minimum wage under federal authority because of the failure of CNMI to address a host of problems arising from its reliance on foreign workers.

Federal officials are worried the commonwealth’s continued dependence on guest workers, numbering between 28,000 and 30,000, will make it more difficult for the local government to address growing labor abuses, curb entry of non-residents and raise wages to federal standards.

He said another key issue he would bring up with congressional members is a plan to slash infrastructure grants CNMI receives from the federal government as proposed in the FY 2000 spending plan President Clinton has submitted to Congress.

Under the budget proposal, the commonwealth will receive 51 percent less than the annual appropriation of $11 million until year 2002. Tenorio explained in total the commonwealth stands to lose over $15 million in Covenant funding crucial to the implementation of the seven-year master plan for Capital Improvement Projects.

The $5.4 million reduction will be diverted to Guam in the form of construction grants to cover cost of the impact of hosting Micronesian citizens.

“It’s bothersome and it really concerns us,” Tenorio said.

CNMI is badly seeking support from sympathetic Republicans, who dominate both chambers of Congress, in order to thwart fresh attempts of federal officials to take control of local minimum wage and immigration, and restore funds guaranteed under the Third Special Representative Agreement ratified in 1996.

Based on a schedule provided to media, the congressional delegation will be briefed by local officials on the labor and immigration reforms undertaken by the Tenorio administration since it took office last year, as well as the financial and economic woes confronting the commonwealth.

His visit, which ends on Saturday, will also include meetings with the Legislature, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, representatives and advocates of non-resident workers and federal officials on Saipan.

The US lawmakers are scheduled to tour workers dormitories, garment factories, the Northern Marianas College and historical sites on Tinian.