By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

A GROUP of foreign workers are preparing a welcome rally for the two senior staff members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources who are scheduled to arrive on island this weekend.
The two are former Insular Affairs Director Allen Stayman, who is now the committee’s professional staff member responsible for handling insular affairs, and Josh Johnson, a senior staff member of Sen. Pete Dominici, R-N.M.
Members of the Human Dignity Act Movement and Dekada, two separate groups of migrant workers pushing for the federalization of local minimum wage and immigration laws, said they will hold a welcome rally for the staffers on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. at American Memorial Park.
The groups have sent out invitations to Filipinos, Chinese, Bangladeshis, Koreans and other groups of migrant workers to join their rally.
“The Human Dignity Act Movement and Dekada would like to invite all Filipino organizations and alien workers to join the welcome rally,” they said in a joint announcement.
“This is a fact-finding mission for the proposed bill seeking to extend federal minimum wage and immigration laws in the CNMI,” they added.
But Speaker Oscar M. Babauta, Covenant-Saipan, said the two Senate staff members will not be here for a fact-finding mission.
“They are coming come here on a post-hearing mission. We will be meeting with them on Feb. 27 to relate our concerns,” Babauta told Variety in an interview.
“They were sent here by committee chairman (Sen.) Jeff Bingaman and the U.S. Congress to take a look at the CNMI’s economic condition,” he added.
Stayman and Johnson last visited the CNMI in Jan. 2006 to look into how the local government was using federal funds.