Teno confident on Congress’ support vs takeover

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio is confident the Northern Marianas will draw enough support in the U.S. Congress to block legislation seeking to take away local powers over the island’s immigration and minimum wage standards.

“We would like to see Congress to consider that implementation of federal minimum wage and immigration would impact our economy,” he told reporters yesterday.

Tenorio was responding to questions regarding his 10-day visit to Washington D.C., which included talks with key members and staff of the US Congress. He, however, declined to disclose what transpired during the meeting, describing it only as “fair.”

The governor arrived last Monday.

Tenorio had traveled to the U.S. capital originally to appear before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for the hearing on a pending bill that would extend U.S. immigration laws to the CNMI, but that was postponed at the last minute.

According to the governor, he took the opportunity to pay courtesy visits to some members of the Congress to brief them about conditions in the Commonwealth.

“We discussed some of the issues that we have over here. Our economy is not getting better. We depend on the Asian economy, so they understand (our situation),” he said.

Asked whether he had lobbied to get their support, Tenorio only said that they were “fair when I met with them. It was a courtesy visit. I did not discuss anything about the legislation. It was a very mutual discussion that we had.”

But the local chief executive would not reveal names of officials he had met, admitting only that he had talks with the staff of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

Considered one of the CNMI’s staunch supporters in Washington, DeLay visited the island in December 1997 during which he met with Tenorio, who was then governor-elect.

Tenorio is scheduled to return to D.C. early next month to attend a back-to-back hearing to be conducted by the same Senate panel as well as the House Resources Committee.

Both committees have oversight of the Northern Marianas and other U.S. territories. The Senate will tackle the proposed legislation seeking full extension of the Immigration and Nationality Act to the island.

Co-sponsored by Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the bipartisan measure is one of the seven bills pending in the Congress that would seek to strip CNMI authority over local immigration, minimum wage and customs policies.

In the past, the island government has repeatedly opposed attempts by Washington to federalize commonwealth functions, citing its devastating impact on the local economy highly dependent on contract workers from Asian countries.

The Clinton Administration has criticized the Northern Marianas government for its alleged failure to curb the number of nonresidents on the island — issues which have driven a wedge on the bilateral relations in recent years.