“The leadership is not convinced that we should spend time and money on this issue because we have a bigger crisis on our hand,” said Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan, in an interview yesterday.
Palacios said fellow Saipan Republican Rep. Diego T. Benavente ,who chairs the House Committee on U.S. and Foreign Relations, will draft a joint resolution expressing the Legislature’s position that public funds should not be used to pay Washington-based Jenner & Block law firm $50,000 a month for the next eight months as requested by the governor.
Jenner & Block was hired by the governor last June to review the administration’s lawsuit that aims to prevent the implementation on June 1, 2009 of the CNMI federalization provisions of U.S. Public Law 110-229.
Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said the “economic disaster” that may happen to the CNMI if the federalization law is implemented outweighs the projected legal fees.
“The governor is interested in pursuing litigation to protect the vital economic interests of the CNMI,” he said in an e-mail. “The new federal law is extremely restrictive and even punitive in some respects. The federal regulators are severely limited in their ability to provide flexibility because of the plain language of the law.”
Reyes added, “The very premise of the law is damage to the CNMI. The costs of not pursuing this option may turn out to be far greater than the costs of litigation, in the governor’s view.”
Negotiate
But Palacios said the litigation proposal is a “wrong issue at the wrong time.”
“We’re in the middle of an economic crisis,” he said. “It’s not going to help. I may agree on some points that it’s going to affect our economy but going to the court should not be our first option.”
He said a cheaper and a more useful alternative is to negotiate with the federal authorities who are drafting the implementing regulations.
Palacios said the governor’s concerns can be “brought to the table.”
Some regulations are expected to be published in the Federal Register this November.
The speaker said the Legislature will also contact Congresswoman Donna Christensen, D-U.S. Virgin Islands and one of the original sponsors of the CNMI federalization law, to help the commonwealth.
“I am sure that she is fully aware about our situation. We need to insist and impress upon her our concerns about the rules that are coming forth,” Palacios said.
The CNMI, he added, should work with the federal government to ensure that the federalization of local immigration will not further damage the islands’ economy.
“I really haven’t seen any efforts from ourselves in terms of sitting down with federal agencies,” said Palacios.
