THE newly named deputy assistant secretary of the interior for insular affairs will visit the CNMI next week, according to Gov. Juan N. Babauta.
David B. Cohen told the governor that he would be on Saipan on July 11.
Cohen will also visit Rota before proceeding to Guam. (See story on page 11)
“I convinced him to make a stopover visit to Rota,” Babauta told Variety in a telephone interview.
Babauta and Cohen met in the nation’s capital last week.
“Mr. Cohen is excited about his job and is looking forward working with the insular area governors,” Babauta said.
Babauta said Cohen is a person with a “lot of knowledge” regarding the insular areas.
Aside from the CNMI and Guam, Cohen will also visit the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton named Cohen deputy assistant secretary of the interior for insular affairs in April.
Cohen is the first American of Samoan descent and only the second Pacific islander to head the office, as well as the first elevated to a deputy assistant secretary’s post.
The Office of Insular Affairs is the executive branch’s liaison organization with the four U.S. insular areas—Guam, the CNMI, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
OIA also works with the three freely associated states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau.
As deputy assistant secretary, Cohen will advise Norton on operational and administrative matters involving federal policy in the insular areas.
