By Jude O. Marfil-Schwalbach
For Variety

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has given the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs until May 12, Saipan time, to submit the draft of the CNMI federalized immigration bill.
“Interior has gotten another week-long extension. We don’t expect to receive it until May 11,” said committee staff member and former OIA Director Allen P. Stayman.
This is the second time that Interior has been given an extension to deliver the draft of the legislation.
In a March 20 letter, the committee chairman, Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., gave Interior until April 30 to respond to their “time sensitive” request. But Interior asked for more time and said it would deliver on May 5. It did not.
Stayman explained: “There’s been continuing discussions about the content of the draft,” which caused the delay.
Interior’s Deputy Assistant Secretary David B. Cohen said they needed more time to have the draft approved by his bosses and officials from other agencies in D.C.
“The extra time will allow my colleagues…to evaluate the draft, and will allow the Fitial administration more time to evaluate the detailed summary that their consultants in Washington were provided with the week before last,” Cohen said.
The CNMI consultants are Eric D. Schwerin and William C. Oldaker of Oldaker, Biden & Belair, LLP, an affiliate of lobby firm National Group LLP, which the Fitial administration has hired to block federalization measures.
“A summary, rather than the draft itself, was provided to the CNMI government’s consultants at their request. The number of pages remains at 15 to 17, depending on how it’s printed out,” Cohen said.
Interior is still getting comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding the “mechanisms and logistics” of implementing the bill.
Stayman said they “are making every effort” to introduce the bill before the Senate goes into recess on May 24.
“We want to introduce it as soon as possible. The recess will cause a week’s delay. We want to avoid the week delay,” he said.
Even after Interior submits the draft immigration bill, the Senate committee may still make its own revisions.
The Senate committee plans to hold a public hearing on the CNMI immigration bill in June on Capitol Hill.
Cohen said Interior wants to have more time to scrutinize each and every provision of the draft bill.
The department is using as a template the text of S. 507, authored by then-Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Ak.
Besides saying “the draft is in good shape,” Cohen refused to reveal details about the bill.
He did say, however, that the draft measure will address the plight of CNMI alien workers, who have been “inherently susceptible to abuse by employers” under the current local immigration system.