Speech #1060031420

The Committee deferred hearings so as not to intrude unnecessarily into local politics and to allow the CNMI an opportunity to review and comment on the legislation after the local elections. The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform conducted a site visit to the Northern Marianas in July 1997 and issued a report which. in general. supports the need to address immigration. The report. however. also raises some concerns with the extension of US immigration laws. The report found problems in the CNMI "ranging from bureaucratic inefficiencies to labor abuses to an unsustainable economic. social and political system that is antithetical to most American values" but "a willingness on the part of some CNMI officials and business leaders to address the various problems". The report expressed some concerns over the extension of federal immigration laws. but that absent the threat of federal extension. "the CNMI is unlikely on its own to correct the problems inherent in its immigration system". The report recommended that specific benchmarks for an effective immigration system be negotiated and that the "benchmarks should be codified in statute. with provision for immediate imposition of federal law if the benchmarks are not met within the prescribed time." Specifically the report recommended that "[s]hould the CNMI fail to negotiate expeditiously and in good faith. or renege on the negotiated agreements. we agree that imposition of federal law by Congress would be required." (Emphasis in original) While the outright exception from the minimum wage provisions of federal law in the Covenant is an anomaly. so also was the direct phase in to federal levels contained in the legislation as transmitted by the Administration. Congress has generally recognized the different economic circumstances of the territories and provided for a "special industry committee". The objective of an industry committee is to set wage rates by industry "to reach as rapidly as is economically feasible without substantially curtailing employment the objective of the [federal] minimum wage rate" (29 U.S.C. 208(a)).