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‘Some legislators don’t know PUA process, yet criticize Labor to score political points’
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Posted on Nov 09 2021
Some lawmakers don’t know the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program process, yet are quick to criticize to score political points, according to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres last Friday.
Rather than finding out what’s going on and looking into how can they help, some legislators criticize the process instead, he added in response to a question raised during his regular radio briefing.
This comes in the wake of the U.S. Department of Labor Region 6 Office commending the CNMI Department of Labor for its implementation of PUA program, where it credited the CNMI Labor for implementing what it termed as seven “best practices.” Some lawmakers have criticized CNMI Labor for allegedly being slow in handling and processing PUA benefits.
Citing the $481 million American Rescue Plan Act funds, Torres said they wish they could spend it in so many different avenues and start construction immediately. “But this is a process to that. PUA is no different,” Torres pointed out.
With both PUA and ARPA, Torres said they were given guidelines by the federal government and that they will follow to those guidelines. He said they want to disseminate as much and as fast as they can, but there are federal guidelines to follow.
“There’s misinformation. Sure, we weren’t the fastest, and I want to admit, but at the end of the day, there’s a process,” Torres said.
He said if they were to process every applicant that came in, they would not be getting this kind of acknowledgment from USDOL.
Torres said this is a prime example of where some legislators should look at the issue, offer solutions, and follow through. “So you can help make that process better rather than just criticizing what’s going on, and then later on, coming back to find out that our practice is actually the best practice that’s been recommended by U.S. Department of Labor,” the governor said.
