Obama halts pending regs, which may impact visa-waiver rules

One of Barack Obama’s first actions as President could have a large impact on the Commonwealth.

Within hours of his inauguration, Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, issued a memo halting all pending federal regulations until further review.

Last week the interim final rules for the joint Guam-CNMI visa waiver program were published in the Federal Register, where citizens are allowed to comment for a period of 60 days.

Officials from two federal agencies are now trying to determine what effect, if any, the freeze would have on the visa waiver program and other regulations relating to Public Law 110-229.

Alex Hartman, an immigration policy adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, said he does not think the freeze would pertain to the visa waiver program but would need to get more information. Hartman was on island last week to explain the visa waiver program.

According to The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the memo, the freeze seems to impact those regulations that have not been published.

“…no proposed or final regulation should be sent to the Office of Federal Register for publication unless and until it has been reviewed and approved by a department or agency head appointed or designated by the President after noon on January 20, 2009, or in the case of the Department of Defense, the Secretary of Defense,” the memo states.

But a temporary delay could take place. The Obama administration is asking all department and agency heads to “consider extending for 60 days the effective date of regulations that have been published in the Federal Register but not yet taken effect” unless they impact health, safety, environmental, financial, or national security matters, according to The Washington Post. New department heads could alter what is believed to be a threat to health, safety, environmental, financial, or national security matters.

Former President George W. Bush’s administration moved into overdrive in the last year or so on a host of new regulatory proposals. Now the Obama administration will review everything that is still pending.

And that could include the proposed visa-waiver regulations for the CNMI and Guam. DHS had left out China and Russia from the visa waiver program citing security concerns. Once additional security measures are enacted, the two countries could be eligible to participate in the program.

Government officials, business and tourism leaders, and community members have expressed concern about the impact the loss of the Russian and Chinese tourism markets would have on the CNMI’s already-fragile economy.

At a public meeting last week, Hartman said the door was not totally closed on the two markets, and with a new president coming into office things could change.

Charles Reyes, press secretary for the Governor’s Office, said the Fitial administration is eager to see how Obama’s new policies could impact the Commonwealth.

“We’re very interested to see whether or not that affects our situation,” he said. “Many of us are very concerned with the impending applications of laws. Actually we’re very curious to see how the new Obama administration will handle that.”

The new immigration laws will go into effect June 1. Federal officials have stated a delay of up to 180 days is possible but that they are working on the assumption the law will go into effect as scheduled on June 1. Any sort of delay would be helpful if the security measures can be worked on simultaneously, Reyes said.