Hurtful actions of Congress

John DelRosario was right when he said, in his column in the Saipan Tribune on Dec. 16, that the “feds sure know how to hurt a guy.” That isn’t quite what he said, but that was the gist of it. The feds—specifically the U.S. Congress—hurt not only the CNMI but also Guam this week, taking adverse action against outlying U.S. entities without any real understanding of either the entities or the impact of Congress’ actions.

First, a congressional committee, about to vote to bring to the floor of Congress CNMI non-voting representative Gregorio Kilili Sablan’s House Resolution 1466, took the measure off the calendar, thus killing any chance of its passing the House before the end of the year. HR 1466 would have given a number of deserving foreign workers in the CNMI legal status that the feds’ takeover of CNMI control of its own immigration had failed to do. Fortunately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service had jumped in and formalized an offer of temporary relief in line with Kilili’s bill before the withdrawal was announced, so that the fate of the affected foreign workers is not lost altogether—there’s now a year or so to work on possible alternate solutions.

There was speculation that H.R. might not have won full House approval. In any case, there was still approval to gain from the U.S. Senate, as well. So while Kilili and the workers both received a temporary setback, both retained their dignity, their reputations—and hope.

The second action has much more severe repercussions. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a defense bill this week that deleted over $400 million allocated to Guam in support of the transfer of U.S. troops to Guam from Okinawa. Contractors, businesses, hotels had all been poised to take advantage of the money that was predicted to flow into Guam with the military buildup. Indeed, Guam’s hopes were high that the influx of funds would give its floundering economy the boost it needed to revive. However, given the Republican Congress’ budget-cutting stance, the likelihood that those funds will be restored any time soon is dim indeed. Though Guam’s non-voting representative fought diligently against the cuts, she was unsuccessful. Thus, Guam has been left empty-handed, its representative powerless.

To look on the bright side, at least the CNMI didn’t come off as badly as did Guam.