GOVERNOR Ralph DLG Torres told the Interagency Group on Insular Areas meeting on Tuesday that his administration has made “great strides to train and hire U.S. workers.”
U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, however, disagrees.
“Unfortunately, the facts do not support your statement,” Kilili said in a letter to the governor.
Kilili said the administration failed to meet the requirements of the U.S. Workforce Act which is why, he added, the Government Accountability Office report “finds little change in the U.S. workforce, other than the reclassification as U.S. workers of individuals granted permanent residence in the Marianas by virtue of U.S. Public Law 116-24.”
The congressman noted that the governor has reviewed GAO’s report on Recent Workforce Trends and Wage Distribution, which will be released later this month.
“In part responsible for this lack of progress in putting U.S. workers into high-wage, skilled jobs is the continuing failure to meet the requirements for use of the Commonwealth Worker Fund set out in the Northern Marianas U.S. Workforce Act, U.S. Public Law 115-218,” Kilili said.
The law requires CNMI employers to pay into the Commonwealth Worker Fund or CWF to train a pool of U.S. workers who can “offset” the gradual reduction in the number of Commonwealth-Only Transitional Workers available year-by-year.
Kilili said the U.S. Workforce Act requires the governor to submit an annual CWF expenditure plan to the U.S. Department of Labor for its approval.
The plan must include a “look forward” that projects how many U.S. workers will be placed in jobs as a result of the planned expenditure, and a “look back” at the prior year to see how effective the expenditures have been at job placement.
According to U.S. Labor’s more recent report to the U.S. Congress on the implementation of Commonwealth Worker Fund, “neither your FY21 nor FY22 plans meet the look forward or look back requirements, which are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of CWF spending,” Kilili told the governor.
“The current plan appears to lack any detail on the long-term strategy for replacing foreign workers with U.S. workers, which is the overall goal for the Workforce Act. This assessment is concerning,” Kilili added.
“Our local businesses are depending on our wise use of the CWF to protect them from the annual reduction in CW-1 visas. And U.S. workers in the Marianas are expecting to be able to train to fill the jobs that foreign workers have for so long taken over,” Kilili said.
He said by “continuing to fail to meet the requirements of the U.S. Workforce Act, even though the U.S. Labor has made allowances for the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, you risk having your annual plans disapproved, resulting in a loss of funding for the Northern Marianas Technical Institute, Northern Marianas College and the Public School System, or any other potential training entity.”
Kilili added, “If to ensure there are enough workers to build the infrastructure Congress has funded in the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and other legislation it becomes necessary to extend the U.S. Workforce Act or provide some other statutory accommodation, then your non-compliance with the terms of the U.S. Workforce Act will only make that effort more difficult.”
The tourism-based local economy has all but shut down since the onset of the Covid-19 global pandemic in March 2020.
For 2021 and 2022, the bulk of the CNMI government’s expenses are being funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan
