Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero speaks during a Senate session on Tuesday.
THE Senate on Tuesday adopted Senate Joint Resolution 23-5, which calls for a Covenant 902 consultation between Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and President Joe Biden to address the pressing issues that the CNMI is facing today.
All six senators present voted to adopt the joint resolution during a session that started at 10:30 a.m.
Senate Floor Leader Corina Magofna, Sens. Celina Babauta and Karl King-Nabors were excused.
Authored by Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero, S.J.R. 23-5 urges the governor and the U.S. president to talk about the immigration, workforce, economic and transportation challenges, as well as the military expansion, that the CNMI is facing.
Also known as 902 talks, the bilateral meeting authorized by Section 902 of the Covenant, which made the islands part of the U.S., allows the federal and CNMI governments to “consult regularly on all matters affecting the relationship between them.”
Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider commended the Senate president for sponsoring the joint resolution, saying it is timely and “very critical” that the CNMI and federal governments discuss “a lot of the issues that we have before us here in the CNMI.”
He said there is a need to hold 902 consultations “more than ever now” in light of global issues that have been affecting the CNMI.
Every time “we try to do [something] here, as representatives of the people, to stabilize our livelihood, there are a lot of contradictions or hindrances to our ability to do just that,” he added.
He said the CNMI must cope with the “exorbitant cost of fuel, which translates to exorbitant airfare, which translate to airlines that don’t want to invest here because it doesn’t make sense to do business here because it is very expensive.”
He said “there are still other elements that, as elected leaders of the CNMI, we need to [consider.”
