REPRESENTATIVE Vicente C. Camacho on Monday pre-filed House Bill 22-112 which proposes to establish a veterans preference employment provision in the civil service law.
The measure would entitle eligible veterans who apply via the Preferential Credit of Qualification Evaluation for entrance into the civil service to additional points above his or her rating.
H.B. 22-112 would also require OPM to promulgate regulations to implement the proposed law.
According to the bill, the CNMI “is home to veterans who have honorably served our country. These remarkably unselfish individuals honorably answered the nation’s call with selfless dedication and have gone to great lengths to defend the rights and freedoms that we enjoy today.”
“As a token of our immeasurable gratitude, it is highly appropriate for the CNMI government to provide employment preference, and opportunities, to these very deserving veterans and their widows or widowers. It is particularly incumbent on the government to assist veterans with service-connected permanent or total disabilities, and to exercise such permissive preference when appropriate. No words or actions can even equate to the appreciation and gratitude they rightly deserve,” the bill stated.
A veteran himself, Camacho said in drafting his bill, he was “humbled and honored to work collaboratively with OPM, and other stakeholders” while also “listening to…veterans and their families in public meetings.”
Vicente C. Camacho
