By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

THE commonwealth’s elected officials and business leaders yesterday met with visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs David B. Cohen who told them that “this will be a very challenging year for the CNMI” in Washington, D.C.
The new Democratic leadership of the U.S. Congress has vowed to pass a minimum wage hike bill that will apply to the CNMI, which has been paying its private sector workers $3.05 an hour since 1996.
Cohen, in an interview, said he shared his “impressions” regarding the current political climate in the nation’s capital.
“We also continue to track the condition of the economy here,” he said. “We understand the economic difficulties being faced by CNMI and we’re very concerned about what’s happening here.”
He added that there will be “a lot of things” happening in Congress this year.
“This will be a very challenging year for CNMI to deal with,” Cohen said. (See related story on age 14)
Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio said the CNMI government should have a “balanced, unified stand” regarding the minimum wage.
“We want the local government and the business community to make the decision on the minimum wage and not just arbitrarily increase it because Congress said so,” Tenorio told Variety minutes after the closed-door meeting at the multi-purpose center in Susupe.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial declined to comment.
According to Tenorio, a wage increase would be “meaningless” if the CNMI has no employers to hire workers.
“Congress wants to pass a minimum wage hike that includes CNMI,” Tenorio said. “That is a very large escalation…and what we agreed to do is to come up with strategy that if this becomes law, let’s ask to have at least 6 months before it becomes effective so we can try to convince Congress to give us the opportunity to study the wage increase through the creation of a federal minimum wage board that would include not only the Department of Labor but the leaders of all industries,” he said, adding that this would result in “reasonable, more meaningful, and more applicable action.”
Tenorio at the same time said “it’s a little too late to change the language” of the minimum wage hike bill.
“What we are going to do is try and minimize the impact. We agree on the increase but not at the rate that is now being defined in the legislation,” he said.
Incoming Saipan Chamber of Commerce President Juan T. Guerrero said the minimum wage hike bill is expected to be passed by the new Congress in its first 100 hours.
“So it appears that whatever we do or what we don’t do here doesn’t matter,” the former senator said, adding that this is frustrating for the business community.
“A lot of businesses may close down, reduce manpower, or suspend operation,” he said.
Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela, said he fully supports the minimum wage increase, but added that it should be done gradually.
In 1993, in response to growing concerns regarding local labor and immigration policies, the CNMI government enacted a gradual wage hike, which it repealed two years later.
The CNMI government also twice enacted — and repealed — a stay-limit law for alien workers.