Introduction of A Bill to Modify the Requirement to Remain Outside of the United States for Commonwealth Only Transitional Workers

Floor Speech

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Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, three years of pandemic have taken a toll on businesses nationwide and, especially, in isolated, one-industry economies like that of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Policies that made sense before a pandemic shut down the tourism industry in the islands I represent are now actually making recovery more difficult.

So, today, I am introducing legislation to ease the return to normalcy by recognizing the impact of the pandemic.

My bill will delay for three years the effective date of a provision of the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act, Public Law 115-218, that is making it more expensive and more difficult for businesses in my district to recover.

This is the so-called ``touchback'' provision of that law that requires employers to send certain foreign workers back to their home country at least every three years. Doing so has, of course, proven problematic during the pandemic, when airflights were interrupted and increasingly costly. In some cases, home country ingress provisions made it difficult for workers to return.

In the meantime, the purpose of the touchback requirement has been fulfilled. It was intended to reduce reliance on foreign workers and encourage investment in U.S. workers. And that is precisely what has occurred, even without implementation of touchback.

During the pandemic the number of U.S. workers employed in the Marianas has held steady near 13,000, according to the most recent report from the Governor required by the U.S. Workforce Act. The number of foreign workers, according to the Governor, has fallen from about 8,000 to 6,000.

Even without the requirement that certain foreign workers return home at least every three years, Marianas businesses appear to have shifted to a relatively greater reliance on U.S. workers. This is precisely the intent of Public Law 115-218.

Rather than striking the requirement from the law altogether, however--as considering this shift touchback may now seem unnecessary-- my bill takes a more conservative approach to delay the effective date for three years, matching the duration of the pandemic.

The bill also makes clear the intent of the law's authors--Chair Rob Bishop and Ranking Member Raul Grijalva of the House Natural Resources Committee, Chair Lisa Murkowski of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and me--with respect to the timing of touchback, as explained in our letter of July 22, 2020, to Samantha Deshommes, Chief of the Regulatory Coordination Division of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Ultimately, I respect the bipartisan agreement on a reasonable immigration policy unique to the Marianas that is embodied in the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act. Circumstances now warrant fine-tuning the touchback provision. Ultimately, however, I want to see that bipartisan policy through to its conclusion in 2030.

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