By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

SPEAKER Oscar M. Babauta says the possibility of getting back employers’ Social Security contributions will also be explored but added that “it’s a long shot.”
Babauta, Covenant-Saipan, earlier said the CNMI will ask the federal government to consider returning to the islands the Social Security contributions of migrant workers here, particularly those of Chinese garment workers.
Foreign workers are not allowed to take back their contributions or receive Social Security income from the U.S. government unless they meet the minimum requirement of having been vested in the system for at least 10 years, among other conditions.
Every documented foreign worker on the island is issued a Social Security number.
Except for the citizens of South Korea and the Philippines, all migrant workers contribute 7.65 percent of their earned wages to Social Security every pay period as mandated by the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, or FICA.
According to some employers, they are required to match their foreign employees’ SS or FICA taxes.
Babauta said he received calls from some employers asking if they could also be reimbursed.
“The possibility is always there. But this is a long, tedious process. But hopefully both the employees and the employers could benefit,” he said in an interview yesterday.
He said preliminary discussions suggest that foreign workers will benefit if the U.S. government agrees to reimburse their Social Security contributions as the cash-strapped CNMI government can only get a certain percentage of the amount.
“Discussions are still in the infancy stage. We think that a certain percentage can be given to the CNMI government,” Babauta said.
The speaker said the subject will be brought up during the leadership meeting scheduled for next week.
He added that he will instruct the House legal counsel to study the issue thoroughly.
According to the U.S. 2000 Census, the CNMI was home to more than 38,000 migrant workers, mostly from the Philippines and China.
This figure is believed to have dropped to about 27,000 this year.
Last year, the CNMI received $6.2 million as reimbursement from the federal government for the taxes it collected from U.S. citizens working here from 1978 through 2004.
The CNMI’s Covenant with the U.S. states that federal taxes paid by U.S. citizens working in the CNMI, like those of military personnel and federal employees, should be remitted to the local government.
The CNMI originally sought to recover about $60 million in these so-called “cover over” taxes.