releases: http://sablan.house.gov/test
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://sablan.house.gov/test | Kilili asks Legislature to increase minimum wage | 2013-11-07 | 2013 | 2013-11 | Independent | Senate | MP | Gregorio Sablan | S001177 | sablan.house.gov | legacy | Kilili asks Legislature to increase minimum wage Published on Thursday, November 07, 2013 00:00 By Raquel C. Bagnol - raquel.bagnol@mvariety.com - Variety News Staff U.S. CONGRESSMAN Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan yesterday asked the business community to pay their workers more if the economy gets better and their bottom-line is improving, instead of waiting for the federal government to enforce a higher rate. Sablan, who was yesterday’s guest at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce meeting at Sandcastle Hyatt, also asked CNMI legislators to raise the minimum wage “if they want to show they really care.” Sablan said the federal minimum wage is just that — the minimum rate that employers have to pay, but there is nothing in the law that says you cannot pay more. “When workers have more money in their pockets, they will spend what they earn in your stores and your businesses. They will buy clothes for their kids, maybe get some new furniture and we will all be better off,’ Sablan said. As for CNMI legislators, he said: “If you really care, if you really have solutions, raise the local minimum wage. Many people in the commonwealth work for small businesses or in occupations that are not even covered by the federal minimum wage.” Sablan said that at the request of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, he pushed for the rescheduling of the federal minimum wage increase in the CNMI. “I got your minimum-wage request through, even in the middle of all this Washington gridlock and ‘do-nothing’ Congress,” Sablan said. But he said he did not take pleasure in that accomplishment because he wanted people to earn more money. “I’m working to increase food-stamp benefits, because we have 10,000 hungry people but I would rather have those people earning a decent wage so they won’t need food stamps,” Sablan said. At the same time, he acknowledged that the minimum wage has gone up 82 percent in just five years. “That’s very fast and hard for businesses to absorb,” Sablan said. Workers have told him they would rather not get a wage increase if it means losing their jobs, he added. But the economy is finally picking up, hotels are packed and new airlines are bringing in more tourists, Sablan said. “We have a new governor who is spending federal CIP money instead of just playing political games so circumstances have changed.” He also noted that the islands’ Gross Domestic Product showed negative growth every year since 2005 with the exception of the year when ARRA money, through his efforts, was provided to the CNMI. No to politics, picking sides Sablan said that he is getting a lot of criticism from people who think he is not doing enough. “I guess winning back our submerged lands after the federal government takeover isn’t enough. It’s not enough that the money I got for us through Obamacare helped keep the hospital open and paid for the new Kagman Community Health Center. Getting extra food-stamp money so that families I represent have a little more to eat, and maybe, getting them into SNAP soon so they will have equal treatment with other Americans, is not enough. For some, working to make sure that the NMI continues to get the over $200 million in annual federal expenditures is not enough,” Sablan said. He is getting things done in Washington for the islands so when some people here try to drag him into a fight by picking sides and playing politics, he is going to say “No.” “I am going to keep working for the good of everyone in the NMI,” he added. Improved food-stamp benefits Sablan said improving food-stamp benefits is one of his goals, and he did succeed in getting the same 13 percent increase that the rest of the nation received through federal legislation. He said the increase ended for the rest of the U.S. on Friday, but the Northern Marianas will still get it through the end of fiscal year 2014. But he believes it is still not good enough. “The people here still only get half the benefits that people on Guam get because Guam in on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP,” he said. Three-quarters of the money in the farm-policy bill that the Congress passes every five years goes to SNAP. To include the CNMI in SNAP, Sablan said he became a member of the House Agriculture Committee, adding that the House version of the farm bill contains a $33 million pilot program that over a five-year period should bring the islands into SNAP. Sablan said $33 million will not just buy meals for hungry people, but it will be circulated in the local economy. People will buy more from stores, and it will be good for businesses, creating jobs and generating tax revenue. “Once we are in SNAP, according to the Congressional Budget Office, we will see an additional $20 million in our economy year after year,” he said. Sablan said he worked with the new U.S. Department of Labor Secretary, Tom Perez, to get a decision on the extension of the federalization transition period before the end of the year. He said he is aware that if the CNMI “zeroes out the number of CW workers in Dec. 2014 — the end of the transition period — there won’t be enough people for the labor force that businesses need. “By law, the secretary of Labor does not have to make a decision on extension until July 2014, but if he waits until the last minute, or if he decides not to extend the transition period, your businesses and the people who work for you are going to have no time to adjust,” Sablan said. “It would be foolish to predict what the decision will be, but they are concerned about the high unemployment among local people here. And they are concerned that not enough is being done to train our people and bring them into the work force,” Sablan said. But U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’s decision to cap the number of CW permits at 14,000 for 2014 is a strong signal that the transition period will be extended, he added. “If Labor was planning to zero-out CWs at the end of 2014, I think USCIS would have cut the cap by half,” Sablan said | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |