Reps. Edward Salas, R-Saipan, and Rep. Tina Sablan, Ind.-Saipan, quit due to differences with Rep. Rosemond B. Santos, who chairs the panel.
As recommended by the committee, the House shelved the measure that would have granted long-term guest workers a five-year labor permit.
Santos, R-Saipan, said House Bill 16-86, or the Resident Foreign National Act of 2008, was giving guest workers false hopes.
Sablan, for her part, said she was deeply disturbed that committee actions “can be taken without active participation from some members and that they can be excluded from reviewing and commenting on a committee report if their views are expected to be in conflict with the views of the chair.”
Santos said if her colleagues have concerns they should have told her.
She insists that bill would be moot and academic once the federalization law is implemented in June 2009.
“I think it was necessary to file the bill because it would have been a waste of time,” she said. “Say we go through the process of passing it in the House, and the Senate and it becomes law. Now, when something becomes public law it is not implemented right away — there are rules and regulations to be drafted and that takes time,” she said in a press conference.
“By the time all of these things are done, guess what? It’s June 1, 2009. I am not convinced that this is a law that the federal government is going to accommodate,” she added.
Santos, a former assistant attorney general and a legislative legal counsel before she won a House seat in November, said she could work with anybody.
“We have to agree to disagree,” she said. “Just because you have disagreements doesn’t mean you just leave. We need to sit down and talk it out. But if Ed and Tina feel that they needed to leave the committee so be it.”
