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Teno: CNMI is ready for oversight hearing
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Posted on Jun 01 1999
Young, who chairs the House Committee on Resources, is planning to hold the oversight hearing later this year amid renewed pressure from the White House and interest groups to apply federal immigration, customs and minimum wage laws in the Northern Marianas.
“We will present our views and ask the US Congress and the federal government to please consider…the adverse impact of the legislation to the CNMI,” the governor said.
According to Tenorio, the economic slowdown bolsters the need not to put these Commonwealth functions under federal control. “With the Asian economic downfall, we need financial help from the federal government for education, public safety and health.”
It will be recalled that Tenorio testified before the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources oversight hearing conducted by Chairman Frank Murkowski. The committee report, however, was never discussed in the floor.
Federal and local officials have been battling for control over CNMI’s labor and immigration system, which handling by the island government has drawn criticisms from the White House and its allies in Congress.
The influx of foreign workers into the Commonwealth has worried Washington because of a host of social and economic problems spawned by their presence.
The Tenorio administration maintains that it should be allowed to control labor and immigration since a package of reforms has been put in place to address federal concerns.
