Fitial: Delegate bill’s passage to save funds for CNMI govt

House Speaker Benigno Fitial said the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources’ approval of the CNMI delegate bill is “very good news” and a significant development for the future of the Commonwealth.

“I’m happy upon hearing that it passed the committee,” he said.

If passed by the entire chamber, he said the delegate bill would save the CNMI a lot of public funds allotted for the Washington Representative Office in Washington D.C. and the District Office in the CNMI.

“It will get rid of the costs that government pays for the D.C. office and the district office operations. Everything will be paid for by the federal government,” he said.

The U.S. House Committee, chaired by California Republican Rep. Richard W. Pombo, approved the delegate bill on Sept. 29.

In a letter to Gov. Juan N. Babauta, Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio said that various House members supported the measure, H.R. 5135.

Tenorio said he felt nervous when long-time CNMI critic, California Democrat Rep. George Miller stood up and spoke on the bill.

He said the congressman reiterated his call for U.S. control of the CNMI’s immigration, among others things, “but to my shock and great surprise, he supports our quest for delegate.”

“He spoke very highly of your administration’s reform efforts and is hopeful that you will continue,” Tenorio told Babauta.

The CNMI House of Representatives had earlier come up with a resolution asking the U.S. Congress to grant the CNMI nonvoting delegate status. The lower chamber noted that the CNMI remains to be the only insular area that lacks representation in Congress.

Miller, meantime, said that the improvements in the CNMI resulting from the leadership of Gov. Juan N. Babauta and litigation “merit recognition.”

“That improvement merits recognition and, in my view, representation in this House,” said Miller. “I would hope that the representative chosen by the CNMI voters will join in supporting legislation to improve labor conditions in the Commonwealth and in ensuring that the forces of reform are successful.”

Tenorio said the bill would be up for a vote before the entire House prior to the scheduled recess next Friday, Oct.8. If not, it would have to wait for the “lame duck session” scheduled for late November through January 2005.

The bill was finally introduced in the House of Representatives on Sept. 23.

If enacted into law, H.R. 5135 would provide for the first election of a CNMI Delegate in the federal general election in 2006.

The bill was introduced the committee chairman himself and ranking member Nick J. Rahall (D-WV).

Pombo led a congressional delegation visit to the CNMI in January and an oversight hearing held in February this year that examined the potential for a Delegate in Congress for the CNMI.