Levin, D-Mich., chairs the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, while Webb, D-Va., is a committee member.
The two will arrive from Guam and are expected to spend only a couple of hours on Tinian, Demapan said.
Webb who has been on Tinian before will acquaint Levin about the island and its people, and show him what has been going on there, Demapan added.
He said Levin and Webb will tour the atom bomb pit and the proposed site for a firing range once the military buildup on Guam starts.
Demapan said the CNMI government is always grateful for the visits of key U.S. leaders.
“We are not sure how much meeting time we are going to have, but definitely one of the main discussions that we will have is the status of the military buildup in the region and what kind of role Tinian and possibly the other islands in the CNMI will play in the pending buildup,” Demapan added.
As long as the safety of the community is ensured, he said the administration does not see any problem with the proposed firing range on Tinian which will be “far away from the residential areas.”
“So we don’t anticipate that we are going to have any issues there,” he added.
The buildup, he said, should create a lot of opportunities for the CNMI people. These include jobs and small- and medium-sized businesses that offer support services to the military.
Late last year, a group of investors met with administration officials and expressed interest in manufacturing military garments here.
On Guam
Speaker Judi Won Pat told Variety that Guam senators asked the visiting U.S. lawmakers whether Japan’s $6 billion commitment to the buildup can still be counted upon since the costs of rebuilding Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami may make the Japanese government hesitant to fulfill its part of the funding agreement.
Won Pat and the other members of the 31st Guam Legislature were also expected to ask questions about the commitment of the U.S. to provide funding for the Guam buildup, given the new composition of the U.S. Congress, some of whom have expressed reservations about the military realignment agreement.
Guam Gov. Eddie B. Calvo, still smarting from the “snub” he suffered from 15 U.S. senators who stopped over the island last week, also planned to meet with the two visiting U.S. senators.
“At least these gentlemen have the consideration and decency to meet with their fellow Americans in Guam,” the governor said.
In Japan
The Kyodo news agency has reported that Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima plans to meet with the U.S. senators when they visit Okinawa later this week and asks them to relocate the Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station outside the prefecture.
“Relocation of Futenma base within Okinawa is effectively impossible,” Kyodo quoted the governor as saying.
There will be no other way for Japan and the United States to review last year’s agreement to move the Futenma base from a densely populated area in Ginowan to a less populated coastal area of Nago, Nakaima said.
“I wonder why the United States cannot understand that the agreement is unrealistic,” the governor was quoted as saying.
The deal also includes the transfer of 8,000 Marines to Guam from Okinawa.
Levin had said in the past that Congress would not be able to authorize funding for the relocation of Futenma base and of the Marines’ transfer to Guam unless the governments of the two countries work out a realistic proposal.
