Senate committee to conduct public hearing on business reform bill

A public hearing on the proposed Omnibus Labor and Business Reform Act is expected to be conducted next month by the Senate Committee on Resources, Development and Programs following clamor from the private sector leaders.

Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes, committee chair, said he had placed the bill on public notice in preparation for the hearing which they hope to schedule once other legislative matters pending in the upper house are completed.

“I’m looking at the schedule. The past few weeks have been very hectic and I’m hoping that the first available opportunity to conduct a public hearing will come by next month,” he told in an interview yesterday.

He also said that he has informed the Saipan Chamber of Commerce during its regular meetings with the Legislature about the Senate’s plan on the legislation, which is to bring the issue to the community.

Although he does not oppose the proposal, Mr. Reyes said they have to be cautious in passing it so that it will not be “detrimental” to the initial labor and business reforms they have implemented over the past two years.

“I have no objection with something that is good for the community, especially for the business sector. But we want to make sure so that any language in the bill will not serve to our detriment in Washington D.C., especially if action may make us lose our support in the U.S. Senate and House,” he explained.

“This is something we are concerned with. We need to take a very careful review to ensure that any language in the bill that will appear to show some backsliding on our reforms will be corrected,” added the senator.

Earlier, Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez vowed to push the legislation as he expressed his support on the effort of the Chamber and other business leaders to convince the government on the need for such reforms.

Offered by Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, House Bill 12-39 seeks to repeal some of the laws enacted for the past two years that are deemed restrictive to doing business in the Commonwealth.

Chief among these laws are the labor moratorium that bans hiring of additional nonresident workers, except for tourism -related establishments and other businesses granted a waiver by the governor; as well as the three-year limit imposed in March 1999 on their stay on the island.

Although these were intended to appease Washington and block attempt of federal takeover of the local labor and immigration, business leaders say such laws are restricting the growth of the CNMI economy that has already suffered heavily because of the Asian crisis.

The bill cleared the lower house last March, but has yet to be tackled in the Senate despite appeal from the Chamber for immediate action.

The governor earlier has indicated his concerns regarding passage of such a measure, noting that it could affect efforts by the Commonwealth to block S. 1052 which will extend federal immigration laws to the island.

But Mr. Fitial, during his visit to the nation’s capital in early April, stressed that some Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress have thrown their support behind the proposal because they said it is a step in the right direction.