    [Senate Hearing 115-501]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                            S. Hrg. 115-501

                              PENDING LEGISLATION

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                                  COMMITTEE ON
                          ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                         ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                                       on

                                    S. 2182

                                    S. 2325

                                   __________

                                FEBRUARY 6, 2018

                                   __________

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                           Printed for the use of the
                   Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

            Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                                       ______

                         U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
     28-698                       WASHINGTON : 2020

                   COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

                        LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Chairman
    JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming               MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
    JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho                RON WYDEN, Oregon
    MIKE LEE, Utah                       BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
    JEFF FLAKE, Arizona                  DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan
    STEVE DAINES, Montana                JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia
    CORY GARDNER, Colorado               MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico
    LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee           MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
    JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota            ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine
    BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana              TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
    ROB PORTMAN, Ohio                    CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
    SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia  TINA SMITH, Minnesota

                          Brian Hughes, Staff Director
                    Patrick J. McCormick III, Chief Counsel
                         Isaac Edwards, Senior Counsel
                 Mary Louise Wagner, Democratic Staff Director
                    Sam E. Fowler, Democratic Chief Counsel
                    David Gillers, Democratic Senior Counsel

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------

                               OPENING STATEMENTS

                                                                       Page
    Murkowski, Hon. Lisa, Chairman and a U.S. Senator from Alaska....     1
    Cantwell, Hon. Maria, Ranking Member and a U.S. Senator from
      Washington.....................................................     3

                                   WITNESSES

    Domenech, Hon. Douglas, Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas,
      U.S. Department of the Interior................................     5
    Sablan, Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho, U.S. House of
      Representatives................................................    16
    Torres, Hon. Ralph DLG., Governor, Commonwealth of the Northern
      Mariana Islands................................................    21
    Jibas, Hon. Anderson, Mayor, Kili/Bikini/Ejit Local Government...    27
    Gootnick, Dr. David, Director, International Affairs and Trade,
      U.S. Government Accountability Office..........................    35
    Niedenthal, Jack, Member, Bikinian Elder Community...............    59

              ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

    Butters, Joseph K. (RetLCDRUSN):
        Letter for the Record........................................    76
    Cantwell, Hon. Maria:
        Opening Statement............................................     3
        Turnberry Solutions, LLC 2017 Lobbying Report................    68
    Derickson, Jill:
        Letter for the Record........................................    77
    DFS Saipan Limited:
        Letter for the Record........................................   237
    Dilley, Michael E.:
        Letter for the Record (Marianas Business Plaza)..............   239
        Letter for the Record (MOI, LLC).............................   240
    Domenech, Hon. Douglas:
        Opening Statement............................................     5
        Written Testimony............................................     7
        Letter for the Record addressed to Hon. Catherine Cortez
          Masto regarding the status of funds in the Resettlement
          Trust Fund.................................................   124
        Responses to Questions for the Record........................   139
    Gootnick, Dr. David:
        Opening Statement............................................    35
        Written Testimony............................................    37
        Responses to Questions for the Record........................   202
    Guillo, Eden:
        Letter for the Record........................................   241
    Hawaiian Rock Products (Saipan):
        Letter for the Record........................................   242
    Herman's Modern Bakery, Inc.:
        Letter for the Record........................................   246
    Hudkins, Merle:
        Letter for the Record........................................   249
    Hyatt Regency Saipan:
        Letter for the Record regarding S. 2325......................    78
        Letter for the Record regarding H.R. 4869....................    80
    IT&E:
        Letter for the Record addressed to Hon. Gregorio Kilili
          Camacho Sablan regarding H.R. 4869 dated 1/29/18...........    82
        Letter for the Record addressed to Hon. Lisa Murkowski
          regarding S. 2325 dated 1/29/18............................   250
    Jibas, Hon. Anderson:
        Opening Statement............................................    27
        Written Testimony............................................    30
        Responses to Questions for the Record........................   198
    Johnston, Hon. J. Bennett:
        Letter for the Record........................................   255
    Mendiola-Long, Phillip:
        Letter for the Record........................................   257
    Murkowski, Hon. Lisa:
        Opening Statement............................................     1
    Niedenthal, Jack:
        Opening Statement............................................    59
        Written Testimony............................................    62
        Responses to Questions for the Record........................   207
    Northern Marianas Business Alliance Corp.:
        Letter for the Record........................................   261
    Northern Marianas Trades Institute:
        Letter for the Record........................................    87
    Nutting, Stephen:
        Letter for the Record........................................   263
    Palacios, Hon. Arnold I.:
        Letter for the Record addressed to Hon. Gregorio Kilili
          Sablan dated 2/1/18........................................    88
            Certified copy of duly adopted H.J.R. 20-8...............    90
        Letter for the Record addressed to Hon. Lisa Murkowski dated
          2/2/18.....................................................    96
            House Joint Resolution 20-7..............................    98
            House Joint Resolution 20-8..............................   104
            Senate Resolution 20-21..................................   110
    S. 2182, the Bikini Resettlement and Relocation Act..............   210
    S. 2325, the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act.........   213
    Sablan, Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho:
        Opening Statement............................................    16
        Written Testimony............................................    18
    Saipan Chamber of Commerce:
        Letter for the Record addressed to Hon. Lisa Murkowski dated
          2/1/18.....................................................   115
        Letter for the Record addressed to Hon. Gregorio Kilili
          Sablan dated 1/31/18.......................................   264
    Society for Human Resource Management NMI Chapter:
        Letter for the Record........................................   266
    Tan, Ronnie:
        Letter for the Record........................................   269
    Tano Group Inc.:
        Letter for the Record........................................   117
    (People of) Tinian and the Tinian Leadership:
        Letter for the Record........................................   270
    Torres, Hon. Ralph DLG.:
        Opening Statement............................................    21
        Written Testimony............................................    23
        Responses to Questions for the Record........................   144
        Press Release dated January 21, 2018.........................   272
    Torres Refrigeration, Inc.:
        Letter for the Record........................................   274
    Triple J Enterprises, Inc.:
        Letter for the Record........................................   119
    Van Der Maas, Erick:
        Letter for the Record........................................   275
    Van Der Maas, Jasper:
        Letter for the Record........................................   276
    van Gils, Gerard:
        Letter for the Record........................................   277
    Weisgall, Jonathan M.:
        Letter for the Record........................................   279
    Zackios, Hon. Gerald M.:
        Statement for the Record.....................................   281

                              PENDING LEGISLATION

                                  ----------

                           TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2018

                                           U.S. Senate,
                     Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m. in
    Room SD-366, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Lisa
    Murkowski, Chairman of the Committee, presiding.

               OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI,
                        U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA

        The Chairman. Good morning. The Committee will come to
    order.
        I want to welcome everyone this morning as we gather to
    examine two pieces of legislation related to U.S. affiliated
    islands: S. 2182, the Bikini Resettlement and Relocation Act,
    and S. 2325, the Northern Marianas Island U.S. Workforce Act.
        Walking in this morning, it was a little bit cool outside,
    so we will go to the South Pacific.
        To address the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing in the
    Marshall Islands, Congress has provided $110 million to the
    people of Bikini for the rehabilitation and resettlement of
    Bikini Atoll via appropriations and an additional $75 million
    through the Compact of Free Association with the Marshall
    Islands. The Trust Fund for the Resettlement of the People of
    Bikini reached a high of $129 million back in 2000. Today its
    market value is approximately $57 million.
        I introduced S. 2182 in response to the Department of the
    Interior's recent determination that it does not have statutory
    authority to conduct financial oversight of the Trust Fund.
    This determination just came down in November. While annual
    drawdowns from the Trust Fund have historically ranged from $5
    to $10 million, over $15.7 million has already been withdrawn
    in FY 2018. Press reports detailed an immediate $11 million
    drawdown from the Trust Fund, nearly 20 percent of its value at
    the time, by the KBE Local Government Council after the
    Department's announcement in November. We have heard reports of
    large sums being spent on things such as an airplane, two
    landing craft, an elaborate function in Hawaii and cash
    payments to households on Ejit and Kili in the name of disaster
    relief but without any damage assessments being conducted.
        S. 2182 provides the Secretary of the Interior with
    statutory authority to disapprove of Trust Fund withdrawals
    until a resettlement plan for Bikini has been submitted to
    Congress. It also caps the amount that can be withdrawn on an
    annual basis at five percent of the Trust Fund's market value
    until the resettlement plan has been submitted.
        Now I need you all to know that I am very sensitive to the
    notion that Washington, DC, should not dictate local decisions.
    Alaskans have dealt with that mentality since we were a
    territory. I have always found it far more useful to hear from
    the duly elected representatives on community needs. But I am
    also mindful that the Trust Fund was established for the people
    of Bikini, with its statutory purpose being the
    ``rehabilitation and resettlement of Bikini Atoll.'' As a
    result of the United States' nuclear testing, our government
    has a responsibility to the Bikini people. Establishing the
    Trust Fund with U.S. taxpayer dollars was part of that
    responsibility, and ensuring that the Trust Fund is utilized
    for the people of Bikini in a manner that is consistent with
    its intent and statutory purpose is also our responsibility.
        With this hearing, I hope to gain a better understanding
    from our witnesses as to the rationale and the legal analysis
    behind the Department's interpretation of its role. I also want
    to learn how the money that has been withdrawn from the Trust
    Fund is being utilized per Congress' intent.
        Our second piece of legislation this morning, S. 2325,
    seeks to address the Northern Mariana Islands' foreign labor
    concerns as we reach the end of the transition period that was
    established by Congress. This bill was developed by a
    bipartisan, bicameral working group that I formed last year.
    That group includes two of our witnesses today, Congressman
    Sablan, we thank you, and Governor Torres, as well as staff
    from our Committee, the House Natural Resources Committee and
    the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. We appreciate the
    good work that many have put in to getting us to where we are
    today.
        S. 2325 extends the transition period to 2029. It further
    sets a numerical cap of 13,000 CW permits starting in FY 2019
    with annual decreases of 500 permits for the remainder of the
    transition period. Our goal is to ensure that U.S. workers in
    the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are not
    at a competitive disadvantage compared to foreign labor. To
    that end, our legislation requires a U.S. Department of Labor
    certification on foreign worker needs and requires that the
    employer pay a CW worker the highest prevailing wage.
        The bill also creates a new CW-3 permit category for long-
    term foreign workers who have been working in the CNMI under a
    CW permit since 2014, and it gives the Secretary of Homeland
    Security the authority to revoke an issued permit if it is not
    being used or if the employer has violated federal labor laws.
        The timing of this legislation is significant as we are
    only a few weeks away from the submission of the next round of
    CW permit applications. Notably, the Department of Homeland
    Security has announced a significant reduction in the number of
    CW permits available in FY'19, which is expected to result in
    the denial of thousands of applications.
        While I do believe that we have a good product in front of
    us, I welcome suggestions on how we might be able to improve
    it. I do want to emphasize, however, that while I am willing to
    support extending the transition period, I remain committed to
    the intent of the transition, which is to increase the number
    of U.S. workers in the CNMI economy while reducing the
    dependence on foreign labor.
        I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on these two
    bills, and I thank many of you for coming a long, long distance
    today.
        I now turn to Senator Cantwell for her comments and
    remarks.

                   STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL,
                      U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON

        Senator Cantwell. Thank you, Chair Murkowski, for holding
    this hearing, and thank you to our witnesses for joining us
    today to discuss Senate bill 2325, the Northern Marianas Island
    U.S. Workforce Act, and S. 2182, the Bikini Resettlement and
    Relocation Act. As the Chair said, and as I well know, many of
    you have traveled from far away.
        As many of my colleagues know, this Committee was
    originally created in 1816, as the Committee on Public Lands,
    and in 1977 it was renamed what we call it today, the Committee
    on Energy and Natural Resources. Since its earliest days, its
    jurisdiction has encompassed territories and insular areas and
    the scope of the Committee's jurisdiction includes five
    territories: Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa,
    Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, in addition to the
    Freely Associated States of Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall
    Islands.
        Today, the Committee will consider S. 2325, which would
    amend labor policies in the Commonwealth of the Northern
    Mariana Islands. It specifically addresses the Northern
    Marianas only transitional worker permit program.
        The Committee will also consider S. 2182, the Bikini
    Resettlement and Relocation Act. The bill is an attempt to
    ensure that the U.S. Government keep its promise to the people
    of the Bikini Atoll and preserve the resettlement trust.
        At last year's hearing, we revisited the shameful labor
    abuses of the 1990s and early 2000s and the actions this
    Committee took in response under the leadership of then Senator
    Frank Murkowski. We learned that some of these same abuses had
    returned with recent casino and hotel construction, and we also
    noted press reports that indicated money laundering.
    Fortunately, in contrast to the '90s, the Federal Bureau of
    Investigation and U.S. Department of Labor were on the scene
    and they made multiple arrests and put a halt to the abusive
    labor practices, and at least five people have been indicted on
    charges of harboring aliens for commercial advantage and
    private financial gain. I expressed my concern at that time
    there did not appear to be sufficient oversight on the part of
    local government. Regarding potential money laundering,
    Governor Torres indicated that his administration was intent on
    strict regulatory oversight and he committed to evaluating
    whether any changes in the local law and enforcement were
    necessary. So I look forward to hearing about the progress on
    this today, Governor.
        This Committee passed a bill last year which upon enactment
    in August would remove the loopholes which allowed construction
    companies to get CW visas, and during the past year we have
    been working on a longer-term solution to the expiring CW
    program.
        I would like to thank Congressman Kilili Sablan from the
    Northern Marianas for his leadership in working these past
    several months in a bipartisan way with the staff of the
    Committee and the Judiciary Committee to identify a path
    forward for a ten-year transition from the CW program. This
    bill, in my view, effectively promotes continued economic
    growth for the Marianas but also imposes additional safeguards
    to make sure that protections are in place for workers. Those
    who mistreat their employees will suffer the consequences.
        The Bikini Atoll Resettlement Fund. The Marshall Islands, a
    sovereign nation in free association with the United States,
    consists of 34 low-lying atolls in the Pacific Islands
    approximately 2,400 miles southwest of Hawaii. One of the
    atolls in the northwestern quadrant of the Marshall Islands is
    Bikini Atoll. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States
    detonated 67 atmospheric devices in the Marshall Islands.
    Before testing began, the United States moved the 167 residents
    of Bikini off the island to protect them. As a result of the
    weapons testing, Congress provided the people of the Atoll with
    a Resettlement Trust Fund of approximately $110 million. Its
    current purpose is to resettle the people of Bikini to other
    islands within the Marshall Islands and to restore habitation
    to Bikini.
        Historically, by our mutual agreement, the Department of
    the Interior would approve Bikini's withdrawals. I understand
    the people of Bikini have decided that they no longer want to
    continue the arrangement that had been in place for the past 27
    years and the Department of the Interior has agreed to cease
    its oversight, but S. 2182 attempts to ensure that the
    Department of the Interior continues overseeing withdrawals
    from the funds to prevent depletion. What began as a $110
    million fund was $67 million in September, and shortly after
    the Department of the Interior's decision, $11 million was
    withdrawn.
        While I agree we must respect the Bikini's desire to spend
    their money in certain ways, the Department of the Interior has
    a responsibility to ensure the Fund remains for several years
    to come. The Federal Government must ensure that the Northern
    Marianas has the tools to grow its economy, while at the same
    time, ensuring protection of the fundamental labor rights. So I
    view the Northern Marianas bill before us today as
    accomplishing both, but the local government must remain
    vigilant.
        Thank you, Madam Chair, for holding this important hearing.
    I look forward to hearing what the witnesses have to say today.
        The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cantwell.
        Let's turn now to our witnesses, a very distinguished
    panel. We appreciate you joining us here this morning.
        We will be led off this morning by the Honorable Doug
    Domenech, who is the Assistant Secretary for Insular and
    International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior.
    Nice to have you here.
        I mentioned Congressman Sablan, with the U.S. House of
    Representatives. Thank you for joining us, and we appreciate
    all your good work.
        The Governor for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
    Islands, the Honorable Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres, is with us
    this morning. Thank you for traveling so far, we appreciate it.
        We are also joined this morning by the Mayor of the Kili,
    Bikini and Ejit Local Council, the Honorable Anderson Jibas.
    Welcome to the Committee.
        Dr. David Gootnick is the Director of International Affairs
    and Trade for the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
    We thank you for being here.
        And Mr. Jack Niedenthal, who is a member of the Bikinian
    Elder Community. We welcome you to the Committee.
        We would ask that you try to keep your comments to about
    five minutes. Your full statements will be included as part of
    the record, and then we will have an opportunity for questions
    and answers once you each have concluded your statements.
        With that, Mr. Domenech, if you would like to lead us off
    this morning?

      STATEMENT OF HON. DOUGLAS DOMENECH, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
             INSULAR AREAS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

        Mr. Domenech. Good morning, Chairman Murkowski, Ranking
    Member Cantwell and members of the Committee. Thank you for the
    opportunity to speak regarding S. 2182, the Bikini Resettlement
    and Relocation Act, and S. 2325, the Northern Mariana Islands
    U.S. Workforce Act.
        The Bikini Resettlement Trust Fund was established in 1982
    to aid in the relocation and resettlement of the people of
    Bikini. S. 2182 would limit the distribution of expenditures
    from the Trust Fund to no more than five percent of the
    principle and retain the right of the Secretary of the Interior
    to disapprove expenditures from the Fund.
        Two weeks ago, I visited the people and places of these
    enchanting islands. While I was there I met with President
    Heine, her cabinet members and other members of the legislature
    in Majuro and Kwajalein. I also met with the Mayor of Bikini
    and the members of the Kili/Bikini/Ejit, or KBE, Council where
    we discussed, in general, their plans to provide for their
    peoples' future.
        For more than three decades since the Bikini Resettlement
    Trust Fund was established, the Department exercised a
    discretionary right of veto to disapprove distributions from
    the Fund. This past August the KBE Council passed a resolution
    stating that the Department was not required, statutorily, to
    exercise a right of veto over the Council's budget. After a
    review by Interior's Solicitors Office, the Department accepted
    the resolution as an amendment to the Trust Fund agreement and
    decided we would no longer exercise the discretionary right of
    veto over withdrawals.
        In doing so, we made clear that if KBE expended all the
    funds, the U.S. Government would not be responsible to
    replenish them, consistent with the 1980s legislation that
    satisfied U.S. obligations and settled all claims for nuclear
    testing.
        S. 2182 intends to reverse this decision. For decades, the
    Department exercised such a discretionary right of veto which
    was accomplished only with the cooperation of successive
    elected leaders of the KBE Local Government. This arrangement
    came to an end in August when the Mayor of Bikini and 15 of the
    18 elected members of the KBE Council expressed their clear
    intent to deal with their trustee bank exclusively.
        In addition, it is the Department's view that the funds
    that Congress appropriated decades ago lost their character as
    federal once the Fund acquired them. This is consistent with
    the Congressional Budget Office's view that, ``The funds belong
    to the people of Bikini and thus are non-federal.''
    Consequently, it is unclear how S. 2182 could serve to impose
    withdrawal restrictions retroactively on these non-federal
    funds that belong to a foreign entity.
        It is important to note that President Heine has indicated
    her support for the Department's decision to restore decision-
    making to the KBE Council. Secretary Zinke has made clear that
    he supports strongly restoring trust and responsibility to
    local communities with which Interior deals. The people of
    Bikini, through their elected leaders, have the right to
    exercise local control over the funds provided to them as
    compensation for the U.S. Government's nuclear testing in
    Bikini. Therefore, the Administration would not be able to
    support S. 2182 as currently written.
        I would now like to comment on S. 2325, the Northern
    Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act. S. 2325, among other
    provisions, would extend the termination date of the temporary
    Commonwealth-Only, or CW, visa transition period by ten years,
    raise the annual number of CW visas to 13,000 during Fiscal
    Year 2019 and create incentives to increase the percentage of
    U.S. workers.
        In recent years there have been significant investments in
    casino and hotel facilities in the territory, increasing the
    need for labor. Since 2009, the CNMI has relied on this unique
    Commonwealth-Only visa system which is due to end in 2019.
        The Department applauds this legislative effort to increase
    U.S. workers. The Administration is committed to working with
    the leadership and people of CNMI to ensure robust and healthy
    economic growth and appreciates that a consistent labor market
    is essential.
        The Department looks forward to working with the Congress
    and the Committee to provide long-term solution, a long-term
    solution to the CNMI's economic challenges, to protect and
    provide Americans and other U.S. eligible workers job
    opportunities and to identify new opportunities for growth and
    diversification.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Domenech follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Domenech.
        Congressman Sablan, welcome.

    STATEMENT OF HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, U.S. HOUSE OF
                            REPRESENTATIVES

        Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much and good morning,
    Chairwoman Murkowski, Ranking Member Cantwell, Senator
    Heinrich, Senator Hirono and Senator Masto.
        Thank you for today's hearing on S. 2325, the Northern
    Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act. I introduced the same bill,
    H.R. 4869, in the House of Representatives, and we're looking
    at a hearing at the end of the month. My hope is the Senate
    will act so quickly that our hearing in the House can actually
    take up Chairwoman Murkowski's S. 2325.
        And there is urgent reason to act. On April 1st, the window
    opens to apply for foreign labor permits for Fiscal Year 2019.
    USCIS has cut the permit cap in half, 5,000 below this year,
    and will close the window as soon as enough applications are
    received. This year, the window closed in just 11 days. Cutting
    the prospective foreign workforce in half will have an
    immediate and profoundly negative impact on the Mariana's
    economy, which is now flush with growth, after many years of
    decline.
        But Congress works well, working against a deadline, and I
    believe we can move quickly now because the U.S. Workforce Act
    is the product of a bicameral, bipartisan, Congressional
    working group and because the bill centers on two policy goals
    that should find broad agreement in Congress. One, the
    Mariana's economy should continue to have the labor needed to
    continue development, and two, that the labor force should
    increasingly be composed of U.S. workers.
        To provide the necessary labor, the bill extends the
    current transition period for another ten years and resets the
    permit cap to last year's level of 13,000. To incentivize
    hiring U.S. workers, the bill reduces the cap by 500 per year.
    To further protect U.S. workers, the bill requires the U.S.
    Department of Labor to certify the need for any new foreign
    worker and certify they will not pull down the wages of U.S.
    workers. And to help make U.S. workers more employable, the
    bill increases the annual fee paid by employers to fund
    apprenticeships and vocational programs and requires an annual
    spending plan with specific job placement targets, plan
    approval by U.S. Labor and performance reports. Of course,
    another way to get U.S. workers is to look to the mainland U.S.
    or to Hawaii and Alaska.
        Chairwoman Murkowski, I know you have native corporations.
    You have native corporations who do construction and are always
    looking for opportunities along the Pacific Rim. I hope the
    Governor will look to Alaska for roads and other infrastructure
    projects the Commonwealth is building.
        The U.S. Workforce Act also requires periodic touchback in
    their home countries by foreign workers to reaffirm their non-
    permanent, nonimmigrant status. At the same time, the bill
    protects those foreign workers.
        When I testified here last year, federal agencies, OSHA,
    Labor's Wage and Hour Division, Department of Justice and
    Immigration, had recently found serious violations of federal
    law at a major Chinese casino project in the Marianas. Also
    last year, the Department of Justice successfully prosecuted
    multiple businesses that were fronts for illegal recruitment
    and contracting schemes which I would call human trafficking.
        The U.S. Workforce Act tackles those problems head on. From
    now on, employers must present evidence to federal agents every
    three months that foreign workers are being paid and that all
    the other terms and conditions of employment are being met. And
    employers who are in breach of federal or Commonwealth labor
    laws or not using their permits will have them revoked, so
    legitimate businesses can have those permits. Of course, we may
    have some fine tuning to do. We will be meeting with Homeland
    Security in the next few days and the Labor Department. But all
    in all, we have a good bill.
        We wanted to be sure the economy would have workers. Our
    bill does that. We wanted to be sure that more Americans would
    be getting jobs. Our bill does that, too.
        And once again, I thank you, Chairman Murkowski, Ranking
    Member Cantwell and all the members of our Congressional
    working group.
        Today, it seems, we live in an age of division. But this
    bill reminds us, with effort and good will, agreement is within
    our reach.
        And of course, Chairman Murkowski, you and I share the
    experience of working successfully together as we did on the
    transfer of submerged lands in the Marianas in 2013, the Rosa
    Parks study in 2014, extending the labor transition period from
    2014 to 2019, and last year, on H.R. 339, my bill, barring the
    use of CW worker's permits for new construction workers. None
    of that legislation was easy, and the U.S. Workforce Act may be
    the most difficult of all. But I look forward to continuing to
    work with you. I am confident we can be successful again.
        Thank you very much for inviting me this morning.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Sablan follows:]

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        The Chairman. Thank you, Congressman. We appreciate you
    being here.
        Governor Torres, good to see you.

    STATEMENT OF HON. RALPH DLG. TORRES, GOVERNOR, COMMONWEALTH OF
                      THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

        Mr. Torres. Good morning, hafa adai and tirow. On behalf of
    the people of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,
    I want to thank Chairman Murkowski, Ranking Member Cantwell and
    other Senators and distinguished members of this Committee for
    recognizing the need of this important conversation for the
    community and the economy of the Northern Mariana Islands
    through the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce, S. 2325.
        I am here today to speak about our transition into the U.S.
    immigration system, the progress we have made toward the
    highest ratio of U.S. workers to foreign workers in our short
    history, the challenges that have arose in pursuit of even
    higher numbers and how this bill provides for time and
    resources to make the goals of this transition period possible,
    without harming the economy or the people of the CNMI.
        If we look to the data available to us from USCIS, we can
    see that within the listed CW occupations, economic growth,
    local government policy and efforts have reduced the demand for
    many job categories. For instance, in 2013, Northern Marianas
    College successfully launched a four year Bachelor's degree in
    business with training in accounting. This timeframe saw
    accounting positions in the CW program fall from 8th highest in
    demand to 15th in 2016. From teachers to retail workers and
    throughout the economy, since the beginning of the transition
    period, the CNMI has made gains toward the reduction of our
    reliance on foreign workers. The GAO study speaks to this as
    well, finding that the domestic labor force in the CNMI is
    nearly half of the total workforce, increasing 11 percent
    compared to 2009.
        The bill provides for protection of U.S. workers in our
    labor force through measures that are necessary for the CNMI to
    more adequately hire and retain U.S. workers through wage
    standards. The creation of the CW-3 category recognizes the
    importance of the CNMI long-term foreign workers and will be
    crucial toward providing the next generation of U.S. workers
    on-the-job training that is essential for the success of our
    economy. Allowing only legitimate businesses to acquire foreign
    labor under the CW program is an important step toward economic
    growth that is clean, sustainable, conducive to the safety and
    well-being of our community.
        Most importantly, this bill provides the CNMI and the
    Federal Government the time to grow our economy and succeed in
    our shared goal of building a strong, sustainable U.S.
    workforce because even after all the gains we have made, since
    I came into office, in the absence of this bill, Chairman, the
    CNMI would not be able to withstand losing half of its
    workforce in 2019.
        The JGL--GAO, I'm sorry, the GAO has already found that
    without CW-1 workers, the CNMI would stand to lose as much as
    62 percent of our GDP. The effect of this massive economic
    collapse will be profound. We estimate that if the economy
    contracts by this amount, we stand to lose 25 percent of our
    U.S. workforce as a result of business closures and an even
    greater amount from the outward migration of U.S. workers that
    will follow. With that, our data shows a potential reduction of
    59 percent of local revenue. That would potentially leave the
    CNMI with an annual operating budget of less than $100 million
    before paying our debt services obligations and payments to our
    federally-administered pension settlement fund.
        I have witnessed tight budgets in the past, the government
    austerity measures, the inability to pay for gasoline for our
    police cars and the long lines at the food stamps office. This
    will be far worse.
        This year we saw the need for greater data, more
    accountability and better screens that these funds were going
    toward a training of our workers. So we have implemented a
    direct funding mechanism to students to subsidize the cost of
    training and track their progress because they are an important
    product of our work.
        We have many limitations in the CNMI that are not present
    in the states. We do not have Department of Labor unemployment
    statistics like a state. We do not have the U.S. Census
    Bureau's American Community Survey, but through the funding
    assistance we have been able to produce occasional data that
    gives us some light.
        Most recently, the CNMI Department of Commerce released its
    2016 Household Income Expenditure Survey, which projected that
    there would be an estimated 1,800 U.S. citizens in our islands
    that are potentially classified as ``unemployed''. While 1,800
    is a relatively small number, it is my hope to eliminate this
    number as best we can. To do so, we have instituted the
    strictest work requirements on food stamp recipients in the
    nation. We have promoted government-sponsored job fairs and
    continue to allocate dollars to training institutions and
    programs. We have targeted issues that are affecting U.S.
    citizens' employment, starting our first Drug Court and Drug
    Rehabilitation Outpatient facility and are working toward the
    implementation of the CNMI's first public transit to alleviate
    the transportation issues that are preventing individuals from
    obtaining a job.
        This bill represents a compromise on issues that the CNMI
    feels merits considerations. In our initial proposal, put
    forward in collaboration with the CNMI business community, we
    requested a numerical limit of 15,000, which would allow for
    greater growth of the level of current rate and removal of
    construction workers ban on CW-1 permits to allow for the
    existing private contract and more critical, public-service
    infrastructure development activities to continue on the
    schedule.
        Altogether, Madam Chair, thank you very much for this
    opportunity for giving us this time to represent and to testify
    on this august body.
        Thank you, and I'm open for questions.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Torres follows:]

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        The Chairman. Thank you, Governor.
        Welcome, Mayor Jibas.

                STATEMENT OF HON. ANDERSON JIBAS, MAYOR,
                   KILI/BIKINI/EJIT LOCAL GOVERNMENT

        Mr. Jibas. Madame Chair, Ranking Member Senator Maria
    Cantwell, Senators, my name is Anderson Jibas, Mayor of the
    Kili/Bikini/Ejit Local Government.
        Senate bill 2182 came to us as a surprise. It's a bill that
    will limit the use of our money in years to come. In our
    calculation, a five percent restriction on our Bikini
    Resettlement Trust Fund will provide us an estimate of around
    $2 million next year and maybe less after the year after that.
    We cannot live off $2 million a year.
        As the Mayor of the people of Kili/Bikini/Ejit Local
    Government, I will have to shut down our power plant, engine
    fuel and we have faced power outage, cut off our food supply to
    6,000-plus population and will include Ejit/Bikini Island----
        May I ask? Has any of the members of this Committee been to
    Kili Island?
        Anyhow, just for an example. Kili Island is a three-fourths
    of a mile long and wide. It has no islets or lagoon, compared
    to Bikini that has 23 islets with a large lagoon. Kili Island
    has limited resources. Six months out of the year it has rough
    seas and sometimes with power outage from old Ejit generators
    along with the limitation of traditional food and in times we
    have to begin to download cargo ships because of rough seas
    with no dock. I will have to lay off all of our employees,
    including trust fund managers and trustees here in the United
    States and so on. Bill S. 2182 will affect many of us, and I
    promise it will make life even more harder than now.
        Seventy-two years of exile from our own land. There were
    167 of our elders that were relocated from Bikini in 1946 to
    Kili Island. Today there is about 16 of them alive. All of them
    have no health plan and cannot move because of illness and age.
        Here I have with me members of the Council Executive and
    Senator and former President Kessai Note are here with me
    today. I can tell you in the delegation that came, I have seven
    elders that are elders of Bikini. I know one of my witness,
    your witness here, is representative on behalf of the Bikini
    Community, and I can state this out that he is not an Elder of
    Bikini.
        I am from Kili Island where the displaced public of Bikini
    were relocated in 1946 to Rongerik, Kwajalein, then to Kili and
    to Ejit Island. As you know, the Department of Interior
    recognizes that it did not have statutory mandate over the
    Kili/Bikini/Ejit Resettlement Trust Fund annual budget and
    expenditures. We fully support and welcome Doug Domenech and
    the Department's decision in November 2017 on this issue.
        For decades DOI had oversight over every single expenditure
    from the Resettlement Trust Fund with the coincidence of
    successive administrations of Kili/Bikini/Ejit Local Government
    and warranted colonialism, we appreciate the U.S. acting on its
    recognition of its limited role.
        We, the elected body of the Kili/Bikini/Ejit Council, who
    live among the people of Bikini, have determined that we should
    deal directly with the Resettlement Trust Fund, not through
    intermediaries. There were discrepancies and issues in dealing
    with the two non-RMI natives who were, frankly, condescending
    to us. The Trust Liaison Agent and the lawyer in DC would
    inform us that DOI said no, or DOI said this, DOI said that. We
    finally checked with DOI and DOI said they were never
    contacted. Power, and in full, was in the hands of
    intermediaries, not with the elected KBE Council. So the
    Council began dealing directly with DOI instead of middlemen
    who did not really present or represent the real needs of the
    people of Bikini. Suddenly, our relationship with DOI became
    direct, good, open and transparent. The Kili/Bikini/Ejit Local
    Government and I, the elected leaders of Bikini, the people of
    Bikini, we live with the people of Bikini and experience their
    daily joys and daily hardships. We know far better than the
    intermediaries or distant agencies of the United States what is
    needed to make the lives of the displaced population more
    bearable.
        Now that things have changed, we are moving forward. Last
    year, my administration asked the Department of Interior
    whether its main role of veto power with the Resettlement Trust
    was mandated by laws of the United States. The Department's
    answer was no, it was not mandated by law. That is, the
    Resettlement Trust Fund monies belong to the people of Bikini,
    and their elected leaders are best suited to determine how
    those monies are to be used. But now this Committee is
    considering legislation that takes us backward to the whole
    system, a system that says the bureaucrats and the federal
    agencies know what is best for the people of Bikini.
        I will explain this is why we oppose this bill. Our
    ancestors moved from the beautiful island of Bikini Atoll so
    that 23 thermonuclear bombs could be detonated, poisoning and
    vaporized three of our islands. That has been our experience,
    but you need to and must live with the consequences of removal
    and displacement. Nobody knows these consequences better than
    we do--certainly no agencies in Washington, DC. With all due
    respect, neither does the U.S. Congress. We know best how to
    provide for the people of Bikini, now and in the future. We
    know how to survive the hardships of life on a rock in the
    middle of the Pacific Ocean and we know the beauty of our
    islands in the Bikini, where we long to live and raise our
    children.
        In 1988, we did not know how much it would cost to
    rehabilitate and restore Bikini to a condition which permitted
    us to move back. The Resettlement Trust Fund was given about
    $110 million. In 2001, scientists and engineers developed the
    rehabilitation and restoration plan and determined that the
    cost would be around $361 million of which about $110 million
    was already given to the KBE Resettlement Trust Fund. Another
    $250 million was needed and was awarded by the Nuclear Claims
    Tribunal, but to date, the U.S. Congress has refused to fund
    the award. Let me repeat. Bikini already submitted a
    rehabilitation and restoration plan in 2001, but the U.S.
    Congress ignored it.
        The Chairman. Mayor, I am going to ask you to summarize.
    You are well over your time.
        Mr. Jibas. I'm sorry, Chair, Madam Chair.
        I've traveled 8,000 miles, and I will try to get all this
    in. And I have submitted the statement to the Committee.
        The Chairman. Yes, the full statement is incorporated as
    part of the record.
        Mr. Jibas. Alright, thank you.
        The Chairman. Did you have final wrap-up that you wanted to
    make there?
        Mr. Jibas. Alright.
        I have about three more pages, but yes, thank you for
    letting me finish off.
        And just to get to the point, we are trying to make sure
    that in the last two years now with the new Administration and
    this term I tried to work with DOI and Insular Affairs.
        I want to give them a big thanks for all their support and
    we--I ask that the Committee can work with Insular Affairs and
    get all of our information and what we have been through in the
    last several years.
        But I want to conclude within times of climate change,
    Madam Chair. In the last several years, over the course of five
    years, our islands have been flooded with four feet, five feet,
    into the community--three-fourths of the island, covered. Kili
    Island has no islets. It's a single, isolated island in the
    middle of the South Pacific Ocean with no lagoon, compared to
    Bikini. And Madam Chair, we cannot go back to Bikini because it
    is filled with radiation--cesium-137, strontium 90--it's
    filled, we cannot live there according to studies of DOE. We
    will stay there, but we cannot live on Kili Island. It's only
    three-fourths of a mile wide and long. We consider it a prison.
    There is not enough resources. In times of months that the
    ocean is not food, six months out of the year, we cannot fish.
    And if we cannot import food to the island, to the community or
    we cannot get our monies from our Trust Funds, how can we live
    off that?
        And at this time of climate change, this Administration is
    trying to work along with the Office of Insular Affairs and we
    hope that the Committee on Natural Resources can please see to
    our vision what we try to do for the people.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Jibas follows:]

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        The Chairman. Thank you, Mayor.
        Dr. Gootnick, welcome.

       STATEMENT OF DR. DAVID GOOTNICK, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL
        AFFAIRS AND TRADE, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE

        Dr. Gootnick. Thank you very much.
        Chairman Murkowski, Ranking Member Cantwell and members of
    the Committee, let me return for a moment to the CW Worker
    program in the Commonwealth.
        This Committee, along with Mr. Sablan, recently asked GAO
    to examine federal data on the implementation of the CW Worker
    program. My testimony today is based on our prior work and
    preliminary results from this ongoing analysis. I'll highlight
    the aspects of our work that most closely pertain to the key
    provisions of the proposed legislation.
        The intent of the CNRA, among other things, was to minimize
    any adverse economic consequences of ending the preexisting,
    locally administered foreign worker program. However, a decade
    after the passage of the CNRA, foreign workers make up more
    than half of the CNMI workforce and a recent study found that
    these workers held 80 percent of all jobs in the tourist
    industry.
        Last year, we modeled GDP under a range of assumptions on
    labor and output and found that if all CW workers were removed
    from the labor force, the mostly likely result would have been
    an economy 37 to 50 percent below its 2015 level.
        Regarding specific provisions in the proposed legislation.
        First, on the reset of the cap and extension of the
    transition period. From Fiscal '12 to '16, as the economy grew,
    the number of CW permits nearly doubled and as has been said,
    since 2016, the number has approached or hit the cap, a de
    facto constraint on firms' access to foreign workers. Hiking
    the cap to 13,000 would essentially meet or exceed the number
    of CW permits approved for any year of the program thus far,
    including 2016, when according to BEA, the economy grew by 29
    percent. However, regardless of the level, with the so-called
    500 or fewer provision, a downturn in the economy, if it
    significantly reduces demand for CW workers, would ratchet down
    the ceiling on permits for all subsequent years.
        Second, regarding the recently enacted limits on
    construction and construction-related workers. Our preliminary
    analysis indicates that as of January 2018 CIS had approved 750
    CW permits for construction workers for this year. This is a 75
    percent drop on the number of construction permits as compared
    to 2016. Given that some of these workers had permits issued
    prior to the August 2017 legislation, we should expect that the
    number of construction permits will only drop further in
    subsequent years. In 2016, over a quarter of all permits were
    issued to three construction firms. In the future, any large-
    scale construction is going to have to rely on U.S. eligible
    workers, H visas or other visa categories.
        Third, on the challenges to increasing the domestic
    workforce. Last year, we reported the best available data
    estimated there were 2,400 unemployed, U.S. eligible workers
    living in the Commonwealth. Our number differs slightly from
    the Governor's. We include FAS workers, workers from the
    Compact nations, who are U.S. eligible workers. Additional
    workforce entrants will primarily come from the roughly 700
    high school or 200 college grads each year.
        According to most employers we've interviewed, efforts to
    recruit U.S. and FAS workers have met with limited success, are
    hampered by the high cost of recruitment, high turnover and a
    higher minimum wage paid in Guam and Hawaii.
        Regarding the safeguards against labor abuse. First, it's
    worth acknowledging, as Ranking Member Cantwell did, that this
    program was itself built, at least in part, as a response to
    the labor abuses and working conditions tolerated in the years
    of the garment industry, prior to federal control. Now, the
    proposed legislation strengthens safeguards built into the
    CNRA. In particular, it sets a more rigorous standard for
    setting wages, requires businesses to ensure compliance with
    occupational health and safety standards and requires employers
    to document employment and payment of workers on a quarterly
    basis. The key here is going to be enforcement.
        Last, on new CW worker designation. Of the roughly 8,200
    foreign workers with 2018 permits, about 2,300, or just under
    30 percent, had maintained continuous employment since 2014 and
    would qualify for the three-year permits. A significant
    percentage of these longer-term workers are from the
    Philippines and work in the tourist industry.
        Finally, Madam Chair, GAO has not looked into the Bikini
    Resettlement Trust Fund. However, at your request, we have work
    underway on the use of federal funds under the Compacts of Free
    Association, including an analysis of the status of the Trust
    Funds established under the amended Compacts. This work will be
    provided to you in May.
        Madam Chair, this completes my remarks. I'm happy to answer
    your questions.
        [The prepared statement of Dr. Gootnick follows:]

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        The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Gootnick.
        Mr. Niedenthal, welcome to the Committee.

     STATEMENT OF JACK NIEDENTHAL, MEMBER, BIKINIAN ELDER COMMUNITY

        Mr. Niedenthal. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
        My name is Jack Niedenthal. I have lived in the Marshall
    Islands for the past 37 years. I am a U.S. citizen, and in 2000
    I was given honorary Marshall Islands citizenship for the work
    I have done for the Marshallese people. I have been a member of
    the Bikini Atoll community since 1984 when I served as a
    teacher on Kili Island, where much of the Bikini community
    still resides. My wife of 30 years, Regina, is a Bikinian, as
    are my five children and two grandchildren, and I am fluent in
    Marshallese.
        I served as the trust liaison for the Bikini Council from
    1986 until 2016, during which time I helped to manage the
    Resettlement Trust Fund for the people of Bikini. I also served
    as translator for the Council in meetings with U.S. Government
    officials and I worked with the Bikinians' outside advisors,
    trustees, money managers and lawyers to help preserve the trust
    for the Bikinian people.
        I appear here today as a private citizen. I flew 8,000
    miles to get here at my own expense because I am very concerned
    about the future of the Resettlement Trust Fund, of which my
    family and I are beneficiaries.
        As the trust liaison, I served as the go-between with the
    Council and the Office of Insular Affairs as we hashed out the
    Council's annual budget under a 1990 agreement with Interior
    requiring that all requests for expenditures from the Trust
    Fund, and I quote, ``would require written Interior approval.''
        Every year from 1990 until 2016, the Council submitted
    proposed budgets to the Office of Insular Affairs that were
    millions of dollars more than wise, given the size of the
    trust. And every year, responsible officials there, knowing
    that the trust was the Bikinians' only long-term nest egg,
    pared down the total budget number in order to ensure the long-
    term viability of the trust. The Bikinians were never entirely
    happy with this arrangement. Beneficiaries of a trust almost
    always want the money now, and there were many times when the
    Bikinians were no different. However, in the end, our past
    leaders also remembered how long our community had gone without
    anything. They understood that these funds would one day have
    to take care of their children and grandchildren because they
    knew a return to Bikini would be many years away.
        Those days of cooperation with the Interior Department are
    gone. A recent Council resolution demanded an end to the
    Department's oversight role with regard to expenditures from
    the trust. It declared the Mayor fully responsible for
    drawdowns of the money and stated that the trustee would no
    longer have any right to question any drawdown requests.
        On November 16 of last year, the Interior Department
    capitulated to this demand and simply withdrew completely from
    its oversight role over the trust. And as far as I know, the
    trustee, a division of M&T Bank, capitulated as well and simply
    wires out whatever funds it is told to without asking the
    purpose of the expenditure or even asking for receipts. I can't
    tell you why the Department abdicated its responsibility over
    the trust. I tried to get that question answered publicly in
    Majuro three weeks ago today, on January 16, when Assistant
    Secretary Domenech, along with some other U.S. officials, came
    to the Bikini Town Hall in Majuro. However, a stairwell full of
    police refused to let me or any other Bikinian with questions
    in, including elected members of the Council. He said he met
    with the Council. He did not meet with the Council. My son is a
    Council member. He was not allowed to go to that meeting. Yeah,
    okay.
        In the past, all meetings between our leaders and high-
    ranking U.S. Government officials, when they were in the
    Marshalls, had been open to all, and the people, especially our
    elders, had been encouraged to ask questions.
        I can tell you that the Trust Fund that I worked for for
    over 30 years and which has provided over $220 million to the
    people of Bikini is in danger of disappearing. Assistant
    Secretary Domenech won't be here when that happens. He will
    have moved on. You may call in the new Assistant Secretary and
    ask, ``How could this trust, set up almost four decades ago
    with U.S. taxpayer money, have disappeared?'' He or she will
    answer, ``That didn't happen on my watch, so I can't really
    tell you why.''
        Well you've got the responsible official here in front of
    you today, so maybe he can answer that question. I can assure
    you that all the money in this trust will disappear quickly if
    Congress does not intervene to stop the flow of money out of
    it.
        Having said that, I believe that S. 2182 is too
    restrictive. Rather than set a specific limit of annual
    expenditures from the trust not to exceed five percent of its
    principal, I would instead propose legislation that directs the
    Office of Insular Affairs to do exactly what the 1990 agreement
    said, to require written Interior Department approval of the
    annual budget and since this is now needed, to ensure the long-
    term viability of the trust for our people.
        Attached to my testimony is a draft of a proposed
    alternative to S. 2182 that I believe will ensure U.S.
    Government oversight and preserve the trust, but in a less
    rigid manner so as to allow the Bikini local government to set
    their own priorities with regard to taking care of their
    people.
        And this is my last point. Some might say that U.S.
    participation in the budget process of this Trust Fund
    represents a form of colonialism. I would argue that U.S.
    involvement in the trust is actually colonialism in reverse.
        In 1946, the U.S. made a promise to the Bikinian people,
    which in my decades of translating for elders has been quoted
    as if it were a verse from the Bible, when they were told that,
    ``No matter where the Bikinian people found themselves, even if
    they were adrift on a raft at sea or on a sandbar, they would
    be taken care of as if they were America's children.''
        I was deeply offended by the last paragraph of the
    Assistant Secretary's letter to the Mayor this past November in
    which he stated that the Bikinians could ``never interact
    again'' with the Interior Department with any issues pertaining
    to the trust. No American official should ever have the right
    to tell the Bikinians not to come back to them for help for
    whatever, any reason whatsoever, after what the people of
    Bikini have sacrificed for the United States and the world.
        And with regard to my title here, Bikinian Elder. My wife's
    grandmother had 14 children. My wife's mother had nine. My wife
    and I have five children and two grandchildren. All of those
    people call me Grandpa and Uncle and Brother and I can tell you
    right now that quite honestly, I have plenty of Bikinian blood
    that I need to, that I'm responsible for, and that I need to
    take care of. And the person that told me to use this title of
    Bikinian Elder was my wife. And if you understand what it's
    like living in a maternal lineal society, when your wife tells
    you to do something, you do it.
        [Laughter.]
        Thank you, Madam Chairman. I'll be happy to answer any
    questions.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Niedenthal follows:]

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        The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Niedenthal.
        Okay, we have some stuff to work on here.
        First of all, thank you all for your statements here. I do
    recognize that five minutes is a limited opportunity.
    Hopefully, we can get more of the information out through the
    questions and answers.
        I am going to begin my first round just focused on the
    issue that has been raised as it relates to the Trust Fund. So
    I will begin with you, Assistant Secretary Domenech.
        In the past, there has been an informal notification
    process with the Congress when it comes to expenditures from
    the Trust Fund. But with this situation neither I nor my staff
    were given any notice of the Department's new position. We
    learned about this letter and this, really, reversal of
    decades-long practice by way of a press release which is not a
    good way to work through the responsibilities that we have with
    Congress.
        Is there some reason that we were not notified in advance?
    Is there some reason that the Department just unilaterally
    decided that we were out of the picture here?
        Mr. Domenech. Madam Chairman, thank you for giving me the
    opportunity to make a public apology to you and to the
    Committee and to your staff for that oversight.
        When all this initially happened, I was completely unaware
    of the Committee's interest in this particular issue.
        The Chairman. Well, it is not necessarily the Committee's
    interest, it has just been a matter of fact that every year
    there is basically a heads up. And so, not something about
    whether or not I am interested or my staff is interested, but
    that is just how it has been handled.
        Mr. Domenech. Sure.
        The Chairman. Until it was not.
        Mr. Domenech. Well, and I don't have a good answer to that.
    It was not raised by my staff at the time. I'm not blaming
    them. I'm the one who made the decision, but I was just
    completely unaware, having only been sworn in a couple months
    before that and primarily working on hurricane recovery. It was
    just something I didn't ask. I can assure you that going
    forward, I will ask about every particular decision, just to at
    least find out the level of interest, but it was a mistake.
        The Chairman. But you would recognize that this was a
    considerable reversal of policy when that letter was sent out?
        Mr. Domenech. I do now.
        The Chairman. Do you believe that the U.S. Government still
    has an obligation to the people of Bikini, or do you think that
    our obligation has been met?
        Mr. Domenech. I do think we have an obligation to help them
    in every possible way we can.
        The Trust Fund, of course, was provided by Congress 30
    years ago. That's their money, in our view, their money to
    spend on their own behalf----
        The Chairman. Let me ask about that, about, ``it is their
    money to spend.'' The understanding now is that the Mayor,
    almost unilaterally, has that discretion now to spend however
    much he wants. I understand that there's some $57 million that
    is now remaining in the account.
        Do you feel that there is no limitation or no restriction
    that should come with these dollars that came from the Federal
    Government as part of this agreement, as part of this Trust
    Fund, that that $57 million could be spent tomorrow in one lump
    sum by the Mayor, if he should determine that he wants to spend
    it on whatever it is he wants to spend it on?
        Mr. Domenech. I would say that we're not aware. I have no
    knowledge of exactly the decision-making in the Bikini Council
    of how they decide to spend the money. We're just not engaged
    in those kinds of decisions.
        The Chairman. Do you think that we should be engaged?
        Mr. Domenech. Well, as long as the, again, CBO has said
    that the money is theirs. So I'm not sure by what mechanism we
    would be involved?
        Even in the earlier decision, the discretionary right of
    veto was really based on having a relationship. In other words,
    I can't tell the bank to tell us how much money is in the
    account. I can't tell them to give me a budget. I don't have a
    way to compel a foreign entity that it's to do that.
        The Chairman. But a discretionary right of veto,
    essentially, assumes that the Department, specifically your
    oversight here, that you at least know what is going on, what
    is going out the door in terms of expenditures, just as the
    process has always been that there would be, whether it is a
    memo going back and forth saying that this is how much is being
    requested on an annual basis.
        That discretionary right of veto has always been in place,
    and now you are suggesting that we don't have a role. You say
    there is still an obligation to the people of Bikini, but I am
    confused by what you believe the role of the Department of the
    Interior is at this point.
        Mr. Domenech. Well, I would say, again, we don't have a way
    to compel the Bikini Town Council and the Mayor to give us
    those expenditures. I can't make them do it. So for the last 30
    years there has been a cooperative arrangement where those
    kinds of things would happen.
        The Chairman. Then what has changed in the last 30 years
    that would shake up that cooperative arrangement?
        Mr. Domenech. In August they passed a resolution to amend
    the agreement. And so, that's what actually changed in this
    relationship. And after, again, working with our Solicitor's
    Office, they agreed it was a rightful amendment, that we could
    accept that amendment and there was no other statutory
    regulation that would allow us to do additional oversight. So
    we were, we felt, like we had to agree to those terms because
    there was no other alternative.
        The Chairman. Well, I have more questions. My time is out,
    so I will turn to Senator Cantwell, but we will come back on
    this.
        Mr. Domenech. Thank you.
        The Chairman. Thank you.
        Senator Cantwell. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        Governor Torres, last year when you were here we discussed
    the Best Sunshine Live Casino which was operated by Imperial
    Pacific International Holdings--and it was supposedly under
    federal investigation for money laundering. And as you know, in
    September 2016, the casino was operating out of a strip mall on
    Saipan and was reporting earnings that were eight times that of
    Macau's largest casino.
        In your response to questions, you talked about local
    mechanisms to prevent this type of fraud. You said the
    Commonwealth casinos were preparing legislation to present to
    the legislature, and you stated it would be a two- to four-
    month process. Can you update us on that effort?
        Mr. Torres. Sure. Thank you very much.
        We have learned our issue with Tinian Dynasty of money
    laundering. What I'm proud to say that the regulatory structure
    and state of technology the CNMI has put into place to protect
    our people by having the gaming commission work with our
    federal agencies in making sure that all those regulatories
    that have been in place are followed through. We continue to
    work with our federal agencies in all the monies that has been
    rolling in the CNMI. So I'm proud to announce that.
        Senator Cantwell. So, you consider the problem fixed?
        Mr. Torres. Well, I think, I believe, that the problem has
    been addressed more seriously by having our federal partners be
    part of our gaming industry on any issues that they have
    concern, it's open. We have open books. They are always welcome
    to come and join the gaming commission on the floor or the
    vault or any issues that the federal agencies have.
        Senator Cantwell. I understand that you have a lobbyist and
    that they file disclosure reports that they met with the U.S.
    Department of Treasury. To your knowledge, did they meet with
    the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network?
        Mr. Torres. I don't believe I have a lobbyist in terms of--
    I'm not aware that there's a lobbyist. But I might find out and
    get that to you at the end of the week.
        Senator Cantwell. These are the lobbying disclosure forms.
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        Senator Cantwell. Did they meet with others at Treasury
    regarding lobbying on money laundering violations?
        Mr. Torres. Not that I am aware of.
        Senator Cantwell. Can you get back to us on that?
        Mr. Torres. I will definitely get back to you. I would----
        Senator Cantwell. I guess the issue that we want to see, we
    don't want to see the Mariana Islands trying to get Treasury to
    not enforce the law.
        As you said in the last hearing you attended, we need
    strong action here. The violations were outrageous. So we need
    to keep moving forward on this issue.
        Mr. Torres. Thank you, Senator.
        And I'm proud to announce that because of our learning of
    our issue that was experienced last year, we have signed a U.S.
    contractor to finish the hotel of the casino that was signed, I
    believe, less than a month ago. They will be hiring more U.S.
    workers to finish the construction at the hotel site.
        Senator Cantwell. Where are we with labor practices? How
    are you ensuring that employers are held accountable for
    predatory practices against workers?
        Mr. Torres. Madam, I thank you again for the question.
        As was stated earlier, we do have the Department of Labor
    Secretary here today with us, along with our businesses,
    Marianas Alliance.
        We mandate our employers to have their employees'
    documentation available at any given time that those
    documentations are requested. We have met with the major
    industries. We are strict on making sure that those employees,
    the continuous U.S. workers, but also that their documentation
    are legitimate.
        Senator Cantwell. Do you believe that there are still
    unpaid workers remaining on the Island?
        Mr. Torres. I would have to say that I'm not sure. I know
    that those issues that was addressed last year were being paid.
    I'm not aware of any other labor that are not being paid.
        Senator Cantwell. Dr. Gootnick, do you have any comments
    here?
        Dr. Gootnick. With respect to the issue of financial
    crimes, there is no Treasury representative in the Marianas, so
    a lot of the weight of enforcement is going to fall on the U.S.
    Attorney. We haven't formally studied that issue.
        With respect to the worker abuses that were identified last
    year, I think that the sunshine, the sunlight that was shined
    on that problem last year was significant. It got a lot of
    public exposure and a lot of public attention. And I think
    that, in addition to the enforcement concerns, was helpful in
    raising the awareness of the Federal Government and many others
    about these concerns.
        Senator Cantwell. Well, Madam Chair, I know my time is
    expired, but I will just say that these lobbying reports say
    the client is the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas
    Islands. So, Governor, if you didn't hire them, I would like to
    know who did.
        Thank you.
        The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cantwell.
        Senator Heinrich.
        Senator Heinrich. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        Welcome back, Congressman Sablan. It has been a long time
    since we served together on the House Natural Resources
    Committee, but you have been incredibly dogged and determined
    into moving legislation for CNMI over the years through some
    pretty hard to navigate Congresses. And I think you deserve
    credit for that.
        I want to step back for a moment from this legislation that
    we have in front of us and just ask you, what else would be
    useful in the relationship between the U.S. and CNMI in terms
    of creating a more sustainable economy that benefits the
    citizens of CNMI?
        Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much.
        I agree that, at the moment, the Northern Marianas does
    need access to workers, their country, national workers. We
    have spent months in trying to come to agreement on what is now
    the product of the February hearing. It hasn't been easy.
        There's been, at the beginning, the word I received was,
    last summer, was no extension and thank God for a lot of people
    who allowed me to speak. We do need this extension and the
    reduction of workers on an annual basis because we do need to
    get U.S. workers into the workforce.
        And I know that the last time we had a hearing, we were
    told there's no U.S. workers. We've done everything, we've
    tried, we've reached as far as Puerto Rico.
        The GAO report just showed that we had an increase of ten
    percent in U.S. workers where 1,000 U.S. workers were added to
    the workforce in each of the past three years. The termination
    of the program in 2019, which is the product of the Chairwoman,
    was to put a hammer down that said, you get this program fixed.
        Senator Heinrich. Right.
        Mr. Sablan. And it has forced employers to get serious and
    to look at U.S. workers.
        Senator Heinrich. Yes.
        Mr. Sablan. Now, there are many programs, apprenticeships
    that I would hope that would get U.S. workers into the
    workforce and train them. That's the intention of even the
    local law, when we had U.S. immigration, I mean, when we have
    control of immigration.
        But for non--for third country nationals to come to work in
    the Marianas and train U.S. workers, but they were very lax. It
    wasn't the time. It wasn't Governor Torres' time in office. But
    the training is very important.
        Now the continuing thing is to drop our arms and say, we
    can't find U.S. workers. That needs to stop.
        Senator Heinrich. Right.
        Mr. Sablan. It needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.
        Now this bill, I think, is the product of that. It would
    spur us into getting a Northern Marianas economy that would
    have U.S. workers as the main workforce and the third country
    nationals who come in to fill the gaps----
        Senator Heinrich. Right.
        Mr. Sablan. ----where there are really no U.S. workers. I
    hope that answered your question.
        Senator Heinrich. That is helpful.
        Madam Chair, my time is quickly expiring here, but I want
    to just say a word about the Bikini Trust Fund issue and thank
    you for your interest in it.
        I have to say how disappointed in Interior I am. You know,
    my father was in the Marshall Islands for several of those
    nuclear tests. And I think just having a little window into
    what our atomic veterans bear gives us an understanding and not
    a full understanding of the incredible things that we wrought
    on the people of Bikini and their island.
        I get the sense that this Administration cannot wait to
    wash their hands of that responsibility. I think this has been
    mishandled. And I would just say to Mayor Jibas, I respect you,
    but be careful what you wish for.
        Thank you.
        The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Heinrich.
        Senator Hirono.
        Senator Hirono. Thank you, Madam Chair, and a special aloha
    to my friend, Kilili Sablan. It is good to see you.
        I have a question for Mayor Jibas. As an official
    responsible for the administration of the Trust Fund, are you
    concerned about the long-term viability of the Fund?
        Mr. Jibas. Thank you, Senator.
        I'm sorry I didn't finish off the statement so we have--and
    I'm sure you will get a copy of it. But we have other plans for
    Bikini, and we want to make sure that we can invest for the
    future of the people.
        And it's not like we're just going to take the money and
    just use it all at the same time, but we have future plans and
    other visionary projects planned to make sure that we cannot
    use up all of our Trust Funds.
        Senator Hirono. So you have a plan for the long-term
    viability of the Fund?
        Mr. Jibas. Yes.
        Senator Hirono. Do you see any continuing role for the
    Department of the Interior in assisting and carrying out your
    long-term plans?
        Mr. Jibas. Oh, yes.
        In our relationship in the past two years we have come to
    an agreement and with the good relationship and the support of
    Hawaii and Interior, to us, the people of the South Pacific and
    Bikini Atoll, we're partners in doing this matter, in any way
    all of our activities and fund movements, we have come to an
    agreement that we can work along one another.
        Senator Hirono. That is not the impression given to us by
    the testimony from the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Domenech.
        What will be your continuing role with regard to the CNMI
    and the Trust Fund?
        Mr. Domenech. Bikini, I assume you mean Bikini?
        Senator Hirono. Bikini, yes.
        Mr. Domenech. As I said earlier, of course, Interior has an
    ongoing relationship with the people of the Marshall Islands.
    So we do that through a number of other funds and that impacts
    the Bikini citizens as well.
        So, we do, of course, the larger funds are all wrapped up
    in the Compact of Free Association which was structured in a
    completely different way with significant oversight of the
    spending by a number of federal agencies. That Trust Fund was
    structured in a completely different way than the Bikini Trust
    Fund that didn't have those safeguards 30 years ago.
        Senator Hirono. Well, I know that there is a Trust Fund
    with regard to the Compact, and the Trust Fund is very minimal,
    by the way.
        I hope that you are aware that many of us, particularly
    from the Hawaii delegation, have been working very hard to
    restore Medicaid eligibility for Compact citizens.
        And if you are aware of that, I would appreciate your
    support in restoring Medicaid eligibility for them because it
    costs in certain places, such as Hawaii and Guam, millions of
    dollars, much, much more than what is in the $30 million
    appropriated every year for that particular Trust Fund. I have
    a familiarity with that.
        And you are nodding your head. Can I count on you for
    support for restoring Medicaid funding or Medicaid eligibility?
        Mr. Domenech. I'd have to go back, I'm sorry.
        I'm happy to look at that and work with your staff on it. I
    just honestly don't know enough about it.
        But just to differentiate slightly, of course, we're
    talking about Compact impact funding.
        Senator Hirono. Yes.
        Mr. Domenech. That's the $30 million that is distributed
    based on population----
        Senator Hirono. Yes.
        Mr. Domenech. ----to Hawaii and other places.
        Senator Hirono. Yes, I am very familiar, Mr. Assistant
    Secretary.
        Mr. Domenech. I know, I'm just, for the record.
        Senator Hirono. So, yes.
        Mr. Domenech. And I would----
        Senator Hirono. I want to, excuse me.
        Mr. Domenech. Okay.
        Senator Hirono. My time is running out.
        I want to thank the Chair for her indulgence because she
    knows that some of us have been working on this for a long
    time.
        For Congressman Sablan, regarding the worker permit. I
    think you mentioned that you are talking about a need to
    increase the CW visa cap for public health reasons.
        Can you talk a little bit more about the situation in the
    CNMI and why you need to raise the cap so that you can take
    care of the residents' health?
        Mr. Sablan. You're asking me, right Mazie?
        Senator Hirono. Yes.
        Mr. Sablan. Okay, Senator.
        Senator Hirono. Yes, I am asking you.
        Mr. Sablan. Yeah, in H.R. 339, which is now public law, we
    actually gave USCIS, we reserve a number of permits for public
    health and engineers for our power plant. That bill took a lot
    of time in getting through Congress and when the time came it
    was a little, just a little bit late. We had a month and many
    of them didn't use it. Many of the nurses actually at the
    hospital decided that hey, they actually got time off, vacation
    time off. They just got paid a retroactive pay for back pay and
    so, many of them decided to go home for 30 days for, you know,
    vacation and get reapproved, other than using the permits that
    started in the next fiscal year.
        Madam Chair, if I may, because I forgot to do earlier. If I
    may insert for the record, I have 14 letters here, and I think
    you have more testimonies of people supporting your bill.
        Thank you.
        The Chairman. Those will be accepted without objection.
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        Mr. Sablan. But that's why, Senator Hirono, we tried to
    support that. It was for nurses and engineers at our public
    power plant.
        Senator Hirono. Thank you.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.
        The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hirono.
        And thank you for raising the issue of Medicaid out there.
    We recognize the importance there.
        Senator Cortez Masto.
        Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you, and thank you all for
    being here today. I know many of you have traveled a long way.
        I am new to the Committee so I am trying to understand the
    history and, more importantly, our obligation here in Congress.
        So, Assistant Secretary, I would like to start with you.
    You cite Public Law 100-446. I have that in front of me, trying
    to understand your authority over this Trust Fund for Bikini.
    Let me make sure I understand what you are saying, because in
    the actual law it states that under the terms of the Settlement
    Trust Fund, the Secretary may approve expenditures not to
    exceed $2 million in any year from income for projects on Kili
    or Ejit. Do you now say that you no longer have that authority
    or you are not going to follow that authority?
        Mr. Domenech. Well, thank you for that question.
        According to our solicitors, as I said, their analysis of
    the resolution that was passed by the town council was that
    this was an informal agreement that required their cooperation.
    In other words, we don't, we can't compel them to give us a
    budget.
        Senator Cortez Masto. No, I understand that. But an
    informal agreement does not trump Congress' law and this public
    law. You would agree with that? This is the law.
        Mr. Domenech. Yes.
        Senator Cortez Masto. This is what is mandated under the
    law of Congress when we allocated the funds to the Trust Fund.
    Correct?
        Mr. Domenech. Yes.
        Senator Cortez Masto. Okay. So this law basically gives the
    Department of the Interior that authority over that $2 million.
    Are you saying you are no longer going to follow that
    obligation under public law?
        Mr. Domenech. We are not going to follow that based on the
    fact that the law did not require them to give us a budget and
    it didn't require the bank to tell us how much money was in
    there. So, I can't compel those things to happen.
        Senator Cortez Masto. It also says that one year prior to
    completion of the rehab and resettlement program the Secretary
    of the Interior shall report to Congress on future funding
    needs on Bikini Atoll.
        Mr. Domenech. That's correct.
        Senator Cortez Masto. You are no longer going to do that?
        Mr. Domenech. No, we are going to do that.
        Senator Cortez Masto. Okay, so you are going to exercise,
    so you are going to choose what to follow under the public law
    is what it sounds like to me. Some you are going to exercise,
    some you are not which I do not really quite understand,
    particularly as an attorney, practicing since 1990.
        Let me follow up a little bit more here because it also
    says one final thing here which is interesting to me--that
    following completion of the rehabilitation and resettlement
    program, funds remaining in the Resettlement Trust Fund in
    excess of the amount identified by the Secretary as required
    for future funding needs shall be deposited in the United
    States Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. How do you interpret
    that?
        Mr. Domenech. Just the way you've read it that at the end
    of this whole process that whatever funds are left will come
    back to the Treasury.
        Senator Cortez Masto. But your argument is saying they are
    not federal funds, so we do not have any authority over them.
    But at some point in time, they become federal funds again and
    we get to put them back in the Treasury?
        Mr. Domenech. Well, I mean, that's a reasonable question,
    I'm happy to take to our solicitor.
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        Senator Cortez Masto. Yes, listen, I appreciate all the
    comments today. I appreciate your rights to control to your
    destiny and protect your communities. I absolutely support
    that. But at the end of the day, I also am an attorney and the
    law is the law, and there are things that have to be followed
    for a reason. That is really what I am trying to get an
    understanding of.
        I am going to further get information to really find out
    what is our obligation which it sounds like to me, we have more
    of an obligation than what is happening here, but I am open to
    it and further exploring that.
        I have about a minute left, so let me jump over to Governor
    Torres. Governor, this is a difficult problem. It is about the
    supply and trying to get workers there and doing everything you
    can to, obviously, make sure there are American workers. But if
    American workers are not coming to do the job, you need
    somebody to do it. Is that correct?
        Mr. Torres. Yes.
        Senator Cortez Masto. I understand that you also held off-
    island recruitment of U.S. eligible workers, including in Las
    Vegas where I represent Nevada, and I am from Las Vegas. Is
    that correct?
        Mr. Torres. Yes.
        Senator Cortez Masto. Can you talk a little bit about the
    challenges you are having in getting people and recruiting
    Americans to come to the island to work?
        Mr. Torres. Sure.
        So, we're 8,000 miles away from here, traveling just so
    that--it took me about 30 hours to travel here to DC. We have,
    in fact, collective knowledge of the Northern Marianas Business
    Alliance with us, one of it is the Pacific Imperial which is
    our casino.
        A couple years ago they spent close to $1.5 million going
    to Las Vegas, Atlanta, New Jersey, trying to recruit for their
    gaming because gaming in Saipan is obviously the first
    industry. We don't have the experience. We don't have the
    knowledge on operating the--dealers and so forth.
        Out of $1.5 million, I believe they only were able to hire
    147 employees. Six months into the recruitment we were hit by
    the worst typhoon in history, and it was a disaster for the
    CNMI. It took about six months to restore back the power. Right
    after the disaster, 90 percent of them left within 30 days.
        We have other casino and other industry that went down to
    FSM has also tried to get employees which is very difficult to
    get U.S. workers out here in the mainland because of our
    minimum wage and, of course, it's far from home.
        Senator Cortez Masto. Minimum wage is not as competitive as
    some of the islands around, correct?
        Mr. Torres. Well, Guam is about $14 or $12.
        Senator Cortez Masto. Okay
        Mr. Torres. Ours is $7.55.
        Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
        I know my time is running out.
        Dr. Gootnick, did you have anything to add to that?
        Dr. Gootnick. Only that, along with federal control of
    immigration, there was the application of minimum wage laws in
    the Mariana Islands in 2009, I believe. And at the time, the
    wage was $3.00 an hour. It's now, this fall, going to merge
    with the federal minimum wage at $7.25. There was a belief, at
    the time, that raising the minimum wage to the U.S. minimum
    wage would attract U.S. workers to the Commonwealth.
        I'm not sure that there's a lot of evidence that it's done
    that, partially because of Guam and Hawaii minimum wage. But we
    still see that a very high percentage of the workers in the
    Mariana Islands are making the minimum wage. I believe it's
    roughly 60 percent and at foreign workers, it's a higher
    percentage. So, it's hard to get people to come all that way
    for U.S. minimum wage.
        Senator Cortez Masto. Yes. No, and I appreciate that.
        Thank you for the conversations today. Let me just finally
    add, labor protections, obviously, are so important. I know
    that you not only have a U.S. Attorney there, but you have an
    Attorney General, who I have worked with in the past.
        I think it's so, to me, this is my concern and many of my
    colleagues, to make sure we are not exploiting the labor. I
    don't care whether they are American workers or foreign
    workers. We need to do everything we can to protect that labor
    force.
        Thank you for coming today.
        The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cortez Masto, and thank
    you for asking some of the questions that I had in terms of
    what that legal obligation is and understanding, clearly, the
    parameters of the law.
        Senator Smith.
        Senator Smith. Thank you very much, Chair Murkowski. And
    thank you, all of you, for being here and testifying before us
    today. I appreciate it very much.
        Governor Torres, I have a question for you. I understand
    that last year I saw a report that OSHA, the federal agency
    that oversees worker safety, of course, in the United States
    has found extremely dangerous working conditions at one of the
    largest construction sites in the CNMI. In fact, I understand
    that three employees died after being exposed to hydrogen
    sulfide gas in a confined space. And also, that apparently the
    FBI raided the construction site after reports of worker's
    deaths. I know that everybody on this Committee believes that
    any workers, anywhere in the United States, should have a safe
    workplace to be in. Could you just tell us a little bit about
    what has been done since last year to stop this kind of abuse?
        Mr. Torres. Thank you for the concern and the question.
        Senator, that issue was a rude awakening for the whole
    community, especially for me, as well as the Governor. We've
    worked well, since then, with the owners of the industry. We've
    worked with Department of Labor, to make sure we meet on a
    monthly basis making sure that those construction workers are
    treated fairly, right, the right way and making sure that their
    wages are being paid on time.
        We have the Department of Labor here as well as our
    Secretary, and we mandate the employers to provide proper
    documentation on all the employees whether they're construction
    workers or working in the casino industry. I believe that since
    then, we've been, we've met those regulations and we've been
    good in making sure that we don't repeat those.
        Senator Smith. Can you see some evidence of improvements?
        Mr. Torres. Sure.
        Yes, yes, Senator, sorry.
        Senator Smith. Fine, thank you.
        I have another question that relates to the challenges
    around like who gets temporary work, who gets the visa? How do
    you work around the visa caps issue that you are dealing with?
        I understand that last year foreign construction workers
    claimed many of the allocation of visas and I understand that
    you have high need for this, but that that has also caused some
    shortages in other areas that are particularly important,
    especially in the public health arena. Could you tell me
    whether the bill that you are talking about supporting today
    which includes provisions to make sure that CW visas don't all
    go to one industry and leave a shortage in other areas--can you
    tell me how you think that might help?
        Mr. Torres. Thank you very much.
        What we have here is a bill that gives protection for U.S.
    workers and also the need of continued contract workers. The
    construction workers that we have are not allowed or banned
    into the CW workers and they're--we're moving forward in giving
    them the H-2B visa. That will open up more occupations to
    address our shortfall on other areas of occupation whether it's
    nurses, engineers.
        But I want to just point out that we do need construction
    workers for our government projects like for EPA regulations
    that are mandated. We need those construction workers to fill
    out our infrastructures.
        Senator Smith. Are you looking for some consultation
    between you and Homeland Security on how this all ought to
    work?
        Mr. Torres. Yeah, we continue to have a good dialogue with
    our Secretary and our Assistant Secretary----
        Senator Smith. Okay.
        Mr. Torres. ----in addressing those issues of occupations
    and how do we best make our CW workers in the CNMI with
    occupations.
        Senator Smith. And you are getting the assurances that you
    would hope for that because it seems to me that it is important
    that local understanding and wishes are considered. Are you
    getting what you need, do you think?
        Mr. Torres. Yes.
        Senator Smith. Okay.
        Thank you very much.
        The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Smith.
        Let me just continue on with some of the questions as they
    surround our situation in the CNMI.
        Dr. Gootnick, you had mentioned in your testimony the
    discrepancy between the number of unemployed. You had cited
    2,400. The Governor had cited a figure of 1,800. But as I
    understand from that, your numbers include the FAS workers in
    addition to the U.S.
        Dr. Gootnick. That's correct.
        The Chairman. Okay.
        And then based on the data that you have provided us, you
    estimate that 2,352 CW workers would be eligible for the
    proposed new CW-3 permit. Does the data that you have been
    reviewing indicate what kind of occupation those permit holders
    are engaged in?
        Dr. Gootnick. Yeah, we have some very preliminary data on
    that and, not surprisingly, these are workers from the
    Philippines and workers in the tourist industry.
        Now, I did take a look, again, very preliminarily yesterday
    at the number of construction workers who would qualify under
    the three-year permit. And there's a very limited number, 160
    or so.
        Now, the restriction in H.R. 339 is for folks who have been
    there from 2015. The restriction in this for the three-year
    permit is folks who have been there for 2014. So they're not
    exactly analogous numbers. But the point is the three-year
    permits will not go to construction workers, by and large. And
    they will typically go to the workers that are the core of the
    main industry of the main economic engine in the Commonwealth.
        The Chairman. Great. Thank you, I appreciate that.
        A question directed to either you, Governor, or the
    Congressman. With a ten-year extension of the transition period
    as we are proposing in our legislation, do you know of any
    reason why employers would not seek to move long-term CW
    workers over to an employment-based, permanent worker visa? My
    understanding is, as we have talked through this, that this
    could take, maybe three to four years, maybe four years at
    most. It would then free up additional CW permits for other
    employment needs. Could you speak to this?
        Mr. Torres. Let me take first, Senator, then I'll have
    Congressman. I would like to, Madam Chair, thank you again.
        We have the Northern Marianas Business Alliance with us
    today. They have assured us, they're 80 percent of our total
    revenue, yet they only constitute 25 percent of their contract
    workers are CW. So that makes a big difference on how they
    approach U.S. workers versus CW workers. They continue, for the
    last three years or so, we have more U.S. workers today than
    we've ever had in the past 10, 15 years.
        The importance of this extension will continue our success
    on what we have done in the last several years because it is
    important for us, as a community, as an island and also
    business partners, to understand how important it is for just
    workers to be part of the community. Yet, in order for us to
    continue increasing U.S. workers, we need the additional
    extension and, of course, the number of CW workers.
        The Chairman. Congressman, do you want to add anything?
        Mr. Sablan. Yes, if I may, thank you very much.
        And this is apropos, I guess. Two weeks ago, a man who came
    to our office some four years ago asking on how he could
    convert into a status that is no longer temporary. And of
    course, we don't provide legal opinions or provide legal
    advice, but we did tell him that there are programs, EV
    programs that takes three, four years. And we provided this
    gentleman the forms. Only lo and behold, two weeks ago he came
    into our office and was just gleeful and he gave us a copy of
    his green card that--he copied his green card and showed us and
    said, well it was because I came to your office and that I'm no
    longer a CW worker. I finally, I have a green card and went
    through the EV process and it took some four years. And he
    actually hired a lawyer to help him do it. And so, there are
    many who could qualify, but Madam Chair, when people are just
    dependent on CW, people are just really saying this program
    will continue to be on in 2019.
        Your decision to stop it. And I hope that it doesn't now
    come to, well, when we come to 2020 and there will be another
    Congress and we could just get another extension. That is the
    least of my desire is we, this bill is designed to encourage
    U.S. workers and that non-U.S. workers, third country
    nationals, will fill in the gap where they are needed. That has
    to revert. That's a reversal of the present condition or
    working environment in the Northern Marianas now. And I know it
    for a fact. And everybody hates me for saying these things, but
    it's the truth and no one here can deny that.
        Now, is there a shortage of--do we still have a need for
    third country nationals? Yes, we do. That's why I'm supporting
    this bill. That's why I spend months since last summer working
    on this bill because yes, there is still a shortage. But in the
    next ten years, Madam Chair, God forbid, that we will come back
    here or somebody will come back here and say that we still need
    U.S. workers because I will, like that gentleman, spend my own
    money to come here and remind Congress of what we've gone
    through, 20 years of transition and not just that, another 20
    years of control over immigration. When they passed that
    legislation in the third legislature, I was the only member who
    voted against that bill because it didn't have controls. And I
    saw that the influx, the door was going to open and own the
    influx. I voted no against that bill that opened the Northern
    Marianas to third country nationals, not because we didn't need
    it, but because there were no controls.
        But this bill, the one we've worked on, I think, provides
    sufficient controls to encourage, to suggest, to urge companies
    to hire U.S. workers. They have done so in the past three
    years, an increase of 1,000 every year of U.S. workers in the
    workforce, U.S. workers. And that's only because, thanks to
    you, you have set 2019 as the timeline and a timeline that's
    not going to move.
        Fortunately, we're here and I agree we need another ten
    years, but again, God forbid that we ask for more after this.
        The Chairman. I agree. I don't want us to be here ten years
    from now saying, we have not yet addressed the issue that we
    see very well in front of us.
        Let me ask you, Assistant Secretary, the role that the
    Office of Insular Affairs plays in the CW permit program. What
    role, if any, and what are the efforts, well, CNMI, obviously,
    is working to hire U.S. workers, but does the Office of Insular
    Affairs play in that at all?
        Mr. Domenech. We really do not.
        We, as long as there is a moment here, strongly support a
    vibrant economy for CNMI and all the territories and freely
    associated states. These are very challenged areas that we all
    care about, and so that's why we do the funding that we do with
    your providing the money and try to work hard to increase their
    economy.
        They need labor on the island. They have a huge expansion
    going on which is great news for them.
        And but, you're correct, we do not have a direct role. It's
    Labor or DHS or others.
        The Chairman. Thank you just for clarifying that.
        I mentioned that Senator Cortez Masto had asked several
    questions along the line that I was going to proceed. This is,
    again, directed to you, Assistant Secretary.
        Just in terms of the Trust Fund itself and, I think, some
    real contradictions in terms of the position of the Department
    with regards to control. On the one hand, the statute says that
    the Secretary may approve expenditures not to exceed $2 million
    in any year for income from projects, and yet you maintain that
    in terms of what you are going to follow and how you are going
    to follow it, there is, in my view, what you have shared with
    the Committee has been less than consistent. Also, reconciling
    the terms of section 4 of the amended resettlement trust, in
    terms of what happens then with regards to any unused funds to
    be deposited to the U.S. Treasury. I don't think that the
    answer that you gave Senator Cortez Masto was very clear. You
    have indicated that perhaps you need to visit with your
    solicitor, but know that this Committee is very interested in
    understanding, clearly, where the lines are being drawn. And if
    you are selectively interpreting different or aspects of the
    statute, we certainly want to know and understand the logic
    there.
        I want to turn to you, Mayor Jibas. With the resolution
    that you all passed, you essentially say in that resolution
    nothing in the applicable public laws gives the Secretary of
    the Interior a statutory authority to approve of the budget.
    The 1990 Memorandum of Agreement which lays out that approval
    process and that was signed by the Bikini leadership is null
    and void, that that no longer is in place. Is that a correct
    statement as your understanding and that of the Council?
        Mr. Jibas. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        The Chairman. Go ahead and push that button, thank you.
        Mr. Jibas. First of all, I want to thank you for the
    opportunity, once again, for the question.
        I just want to get it straight on record that we operate on
    a budget that's approved by the elected council and late, as in
    the recent resolution passed was passed by the Council for the
    Rescript from DOI.
        The Chairman. Right. And when you passed that resolution
    you effectively said, or determined by resolution, that the
    1990 Memorandum of Agreement that sets out the approval process
    is no longer applicable.
        Mr. Jibas. Yes, correct.
        The Chairman. So, within the laws, the applicable public
    laws that provided for the funding of the Trust Fund, they
    state what the purpose of the Trust Fund is. When this was
    established and when those federal dollars were put in this
    Trust Fund, that the purpose of the Fund is, and I am going to
    quote here, ``That the terms of such Resettlement Trust Fund
    are hereby modified to provide that the corpus and income may
    be expended for rehabilitation and resettlement of Bikini
    Atoll.''
        What I want to understand here is if we are looking at what
    is authorized, what is appropriate for using the Trust Funds
    for, is for rehabilitation and resettlement of Bikini Atoll?
    How, with these expenditures that you have just made in these
    past couple months, that you have indicated in your testimony,
    you have indicated that the dollars have been spent for, the
    $11 million, not all of that has been spent, I understand that.
    But that you have directed dollars for renovation and building
    of houses that were damaged by tides and for providing health
    care for those outside of Marshall Islands and providing for
    educational scholarships. You have indicated in your testimony
    that that is where these funds have been spent but how does
    that expenditure relate to the purpose of the Trust Fund which
    is rehabilitation and resettlement of Bikini Atoll?
        Mr. Jibas. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        First of all, we look at the Bikini Claim Resettlement
    Trust Fund, a trust fund that is supposed to resettle the
    people of Bikini.
        The Chairman. Right.
        Mr. Jibas. And as we both understand this money is not
    enough to resettle the people of Bikini. At the same time, as
    we encounter many challenges through the time of climate change
    and as we try to survive on these isolated islands, with not
    enough financial and facing health issues and education
    problems, all this comes together and we try to make sure we
    provide for the people. And this money is not enough to
    relocate, if that answered the question.
        The Chairman. Well, I understand what you are saying, that
    $11 million is not sufficient to relocate, but again, these are
    funds that have been placed in a trust and over the years the
    purpose here, again, according to the Resettlement Trust Fund,
    was to provide for the rehabilitation and the resettlement. I
    guess I am trying to get specific rationale for the decisions
    that you have made recently with these expenditures of funds.
        Mr. Jibas. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        In recent years, we are trying to live off the Resettlement
    Trust Fund for the people of Bikini. And as I stated in my
    statement earlier that the U.S. claim tribunal awarded the
    people of Bikini $300 and some million, but it came only $110
    million.
        So, I notice that in this Administration we cannot relocate
    on this such amount of money, but with all the challenges we're
    facing we come as one as the Council has approved the Rescript
    by trying to make sure they can create income-generating
    projects.
        And I heard in your earlier statement that we were trying
    to buy a ship and we're trying to buy an airplane. We're trying
    to lease an airplane if we can get such amount of money from
    our Trust Fund. With the limitation of the five percent we
    cannot get any money as such amount to try to lease a ship or
    an airplane, trying to create other income, other shores, try
    to make sure that we can, our people, can live off of some of
    these interests in the next few years or decades.
        We try and look and oversee our future encounters for our
    younger generation. And we see that with the limited Trust Fund
    and with the restructuring of the Trust Fund and this is why we
    don't agree with S. bill 2182.
        The Chairman. Well, let me ask the question then because it
    was Mr. Niedenthal who suggested that while he, I think, I'm
    going to sum your statement here, that you agree that there
    needs to be oversight, that you think that S. 2182 is a little
    bit too restrictive with the specific draw down cap. You have
    suggested that we need to ensure that the long-term viability
    of the trust is still feasible. I think you have suggested that
    written approval of a long-term budget is appropriate.
        Mr. Mayor, would you agree that approval of a long-term
    budget would be a responsible level of oversight or not?
        Mr. Jibas. Excuse me, Madam Chair.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.
        We do not look at long-term budget at this time.
        The Chairman. Well, have you as a Council compiled a
    budget, short-term and long-term, for purposes of the trust?
    You have drawn down $11 million of it. You have indicated that
    you haven't spent all of that, but do you have a budget for
    that?
        Mr. Jibas. Yes. We draw on $11 million in the last few
    months, just under the indication that we were trying to create
    these, generating projects for future income, but at the same
    time, we only did this because we notice there was a rumor that
    the office was going to stop us and restrict us on the
    limitations.
        And I cannot feel----
        The Chairman. What office?
        Mr. Jibas. The designated office who is, has the approval
    of the budgets. Could be Hawaii and Interior or we heard that
    somebody was going to put a restriction on our budget and we
    cannot get out. We will put, with the limitation of the budget,
    we cannot live off that and----
        The Chairman. Isn't it accurate though that, on average,
    the distribution on an annual basis has been about $5 million?
        Mr. Jibas. On average, yes, maybe six.
        The Chairman. On average.
        So you were worried that it was going to be limited to less
    than $5 million?
        Mr. Jibas. Right. Correct.
        The Chairman. And you were concerned about that from who?
        Mr. Jibas. Through the Council, as we have worked along
    this year trying to find the best way to make sure our people
    can survive. Because, no question, if the Interior gives us a
    budget of $4 million or $3 million, I will have to cut off the
    power and make sure everybody is not on payroll and no food, no
    fuel, no education requests, nothing because it's not enough.
        And we had to take our $10 million, put it in one of the
    banks. We know that we could have put it on the market and make
    the interest, the returns better, but because of the rumors
    that the Office or somebody in the Departments, I'm not sure,
    that want to put the restriction on our money so we can only
    get $3 million or $4 million a year.
        The Chairman. But you recognize that that Trust Fund is
    limited?
        Mr. Jibas. Yes.
        The Chairman. Right.
        And that maybe putting you on a budget at less than the
    people would want, is financial stewardship and recognizing
    that the Trust Fund is not just available for full consumption
    and disposal for the people today, but that the people of
    tomorrow and future generations would hopefully be able to
    derive some benefit.
        Mr. Jibas. Yes. Thank you, Madam, again.
        Yes, that's both you and the Council of the people of
    Bikini's main concern. How can the people of Bikini return to
    Bikini? It's been 72 years.
        How can we feed the people now that the Trust Fund is lower
    and the interests are not as good? And we are trying to so we
    come together and pass the resolution that we should create
    generating income projects.
        The Chairman. And how is--and I understand that communities
    that are threatened by climate change are vulnerable, that
    repairing or rebuilding new houses is expensive, but the
    purpose in my questioning is this is the first time that you
    have not had any oversight. And again, the oversight has been
    minimal. It is a discretionary right of veto. And yet, you have
    drawn down more than twice, more than twice, almost three
    times, as much as has been afforded on an annual basis. You
    have a Fund that is limited. And I am trying to understand why
    the KBE Local Government Council believes that this level of
    funding is necessary? Why you would object to oversight by way
    of a long-term budget?
        And just making sure that there is an appropriate process
    because what has happened with the Department of the Interior's
    very sudden and unannounced decision that they were going to
    completely withdraw, although I think it has been confusing,
    Secretary Domenech, about how much completely withdraw means
    with the Department here in terms of your oversight.
        And this Committee has a responsibility. This Committee has
    a responsibility, not only to the people of Bikini, but to the
    federal taxpayers as well.
        So I am just trying to make sure that I understand, fully,
    what is going on and that there is a fair process moving
    forward.
        Mr. Niedenthal, I wanted to ask you because I mentioned
    your suggestion and your statement that you think that,
    perhaps, the approach that we have taken with a limitation on
    the draw down, a cap on the draw down, might be too
    restrictive.
        Given the current level of the Fund, is it possible to
    ensure the long-term viability of the trust, in your opinion?
        Mr. Niedenthal. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        I think what's being ignored here quite a bit, and I'm a
    little concerned about this, is the history of this. You had 40
    years where the people of Bikini had nothing. They were
    starving. They were struggling. And then this Trust Fund came
    into being. A lot of people, and this has been completely
    ignored, a lot of our people worked really hard, Senator Tomaki
    Juda, who is struggling with his life right now in Hawaii. We
    had former Henchi Balos, Senator Henchi Balos, Nathan Note,
    Kataejar Jibas. We had all these people who worked so hard,
    Ralph Waltz, Neerja Jamari, Johnny Johnson. All these Bikinians
    who worked so hard to get this money. We traveled thousands of
    miles. We don't have a representative in Congress. We had to
    lobby for that. And we're in the middle of nowhere and nobody
    cares. I mean, the seats are all empty except for you. Thank
    you very much. And this is like, it's always like this for us.
        And so, what happens is, for us, when we were out there and
    we saw this happen, this all happened. I saw this resolution.
    There was no public hearing for that resolution for the people
    of Bikini. They passed it in an hour and a half in a little
    room above the Town Hall. No Bikinians got to say, hey, what's
    going on here? And I saw it. My son showed it to me. And I
    said, there's no way that, that doesn't even pass the laugh
    test. And then along comes Interior and says, yeah, it's okay.
    It took us several days to get the secret letter. And he
    already contradicted what her, the Senator's, question was. In
    his own letter, he says they do have a responsibility for that
    $2 million on Kili.
        So, I'm, sort of, like really confused about how all this
    came down. And then you talk about how they didn't inform
    Congress, how they didn't inform the RMI government. They
    didn't inform the State Department, the embassies out there.
    Nobody knew what was going on.
        We're all of sudden hearing all this stuff and then all of
    a sudden there's $11 million in a bank account and there's,
    like, no public information about this. We kept saying, hey,
    let's have a public hearing. Let's talk about this. This is our
    future. I'm a grandfather.
        And when you talk about the long-term viability of the
    trust, I mean, it's outrageous that Interior would do this to
    us.
        That Trust Fund, those people worked so hard for this. It
    provided $220 million over 30 years, and they're trying to say,
    oh, they never had contact with Interior. That's completely
    false. We were in contact all the time. We had no choice. And
    that system, they had total independence and total freedom over
    that money. The only number that was negotiated every year was
    the total amount. Interior would look at it. Talk to our money
    advisors and get them an amount that would assure the long-term
    viability of the trust and then the Bikinians were free to do
    anything they wanted within that number. It was a system that
    worked.
        And suddenly, everybody decided to break it. And now, all
    of sudden, as you said, $15 million, that's 20 percent of the
    Trust Fund. And you're talking about is there long-term
    viability?
        I'm really scared because what's going to happen and they
    can say whatever they want. You have Assistant Secretary
    Domenech saying the Bikinians are not going to come back to us
    anymore for money. And Mayor Jibas' testimony, at the end, he
    says, we're not coming back to the U.S. for money anymore. But
    I'm going to read this again, ``No matter where the Bikini
    people found themselves, even if they were adrift on a raft at
    sea or in a sand bar, they would be taken care of as if they
    were America's children.''
        Nobody in this room has the right to break that promise
    that was made to the people of Bikini in 1946, not the Mayor,
    not the Assistant Secretary. When that money runs out and these
    people are starving. He's talking about, oh, we're not going to
    have payroll if we this or that. When this money runs out, no
    payroll, no power plant, no anything. Where do you think those
    people are going to go to, the RMI government?
        There's no choice here. There has to be made, the
    suggestion I'm making is go back to the system that produced
    $220 million over 30 years. It's not--it wasn't broken. I'm
    just astounded that the Interior Department would come in and
    do what they did. It's the worst thing to happen since the
    Bravo shot in 1954, in my opinion.
        They have threatened the people of the viability, not of
    the Trust Fund, they threaten the viability of the people of
    Bikini to survive. What's going to happen to these people when
    there's nothing left and you have a bunch of rusted ships,
    rusted cars, a plane?
        I mean, these aren't, I mean, if you've lived in the
    Marshall Islands for as long as I have, no one out there runs a
    successful shipping business, zero. No one makes money on that
    stuff. Planes? Come on. This has to be--there has to be
    oversight for everybody's sake, for the United States
    Government and the commitment they made to the people of
    Bikini, and there has to be oversight for the people of Bikini
    to survive. And if you don't do it, believe me, the first door
    I'm coming back to with my five grandchildren by the end of
    this year, God willing, I'm coming to the United States
    Government and I'm knocking on that door. You're not going to
    have a choice but to answer me. And if you don't take care of
    this now, you're going to be taking care of it later. And
    that's all I have to say. I'm sorry if I'm little--I'm the son
    of a ball turret gunner from World War II, so----
        The Chairman. Thank you.
        Let me ask just a couple more questions to wrap up here.
        This goes to you, Mr. Domenech. So you made a decision with
    this letter with regards to the Bikini Resettlement Trust Fund.
    But we've got other trusts, Resettlement Trust Funds, that are
    out there. We've got the Rongelap. We've got the Marshall
    Islands Trust Fund.
        Given the position that you have taken with this
    Administration, do you, would you expect that there be a
    similar view of these other settlement trust funds?
        Mr. Domenech. Well, thank you for that question, Senator,
    Chairman.
        That you're right, there are a number of trust funds that
    exist all in the Marshall Islands, actually it's a surprisingly
    large number that relate either to the nuclear, specifically to
    the nuclear testing and/or the larger Compact agreements that
    are in place. I assume that's the one you mean by the Marshall
    Islands Trust Fund would be the Compact Trust Fund.
        And as I mentioned earlier, that is structured completely
    different up front by Congress in terms of who manages the
    money, and it's very robust and meant to last forever, et
    cetera.
        The Chairman. What about Rongelap?
        Mr. Domenech. Yeah, on Rongelap, my understanding, again at
    this point, is that it is structured very similar to the Bikini
    Trust Fund with the discretionary right of veto for the
    Secretary over the budgets. However, that process has never
    worked. There's not been a, not in a bad way, they've just,
    there has not been a need for that kind of oversight for the
    Rongelap community. And so, we have no sense of whether they
    would come and ask for the same.
        The Chairman. Just so that I can understand, I understand
    that the cleanup on Rongelap and the ability to resettle on
    Rongelap is further along than we are with Bikini. Is there a
    reason for that? Is there a significant difference in the level
    of funding that we have with the annual budget for Rongelap?
    What's the differential here?
        Mr. Domenech. It's, that's a good question.
        Of course, the cleanup of both Bikini and Rongelap are
    really run separately in a separate appropriation by the
    Department of Energy. So they're the ones actually cleaning the
    islands.
        And in the case of Rongelap, they have been able to clean
    it to a level that people can actually live there and the
    Rongelapese want to live there. So 40 some odd citizens have
    already relocated back to Rongelap.
        It's a little different for Bikini. The likelihood, just
    historically, at one point they were moved back to Bikini and
    then it was determined that it was not clean enough for human
    habitation so they moved back off. And that's my understanding
    the status of the moment.
        The Chairman. But it is because of funding in their, again,
    their annual budgets, that Rongelap budgeted more or can you
    give me more there?
        Mr. Domenech. Yeah, I think it's--and again, I apologize, I
    believe that is done by the Energy Department. I don't think
    the Rongelap people used their trust fund for the purpose of
    cleaning the island, just like the Bikini----
        The Chairman. But you mentioned that you have,
    structurally, the trust funds are much the same. So, there is a
    discretionary right of veto that DOI or the Office of Insular
    Affairs has had.
        Mr. Domenech. That's my understanding.
        The Chairman. So you must look at that on an annual basis,
    that longer-term budget?
        Mr. Domenech. I apologize. I'll have to ask my staff, but I
    assume so.
        The Chairman. Well, I do think that we have had some issues
    raised here that deserve an answer from OIA, from the
    Department of the Interior here.
        I am concerned that you have, I think, confusing
    interpretations of some of the statutes that are in place here
    and how those are reconciled.
        I understand, again, that from the Mayor's perspective and
    from those who are on Bikini, the desire to effectively control
    your own destiny.
        I also understand that levels of oversight that allow for
    that flexibility, while still maintaining some level of
    appropriate control is something that whether it's Congress
    through the appropriate committees or our departments typically
    engage in, that that is appropriate.
        So, I have never been one that says that the best decisions
    are made at the top. I am, kind of, from the ground on up type
    of a person, but I also recognize that when we put in place
    trust settlement agreements that there is a purpose, there is a
    level of oversight that is appropriate, not only for today's
    leadership, but for subsequent generations. And my interest is
    ensuring that we are being good stewards, not only for those
    today, but for those tomorrow.
        As it relates to the CNMI and our legislation, again, I
    thank you, Governor Torres. I thank you, Congressman Sablan,
    for your willingness to work with us to, I think, get to a good
    place.
        I think we had some good testimony today. I think we
    recognize that the CNMI has come a long way over the years in
    terms of labor practices, in terms of working aggressively to
    ensure that, as you say, Congressman, we have changed the
    dynamic there in terms of U.S. workers and the expectation that
    we will have more U.S. workers.
        So I feel that we are on a good trajectory here. It would
    be my hope that we can address this soon because as we have
    been told by Dr. Gootnick, in terms of the numbers and the
    applicable visas that are out there, waivers that are out
    there, those numbers get snapped up pretty quick here.
        This is something that we do want to continue our
    engagement with you and work to define good, solid solutions.
    Again, as you say, Governor Torres, so we are not back here ten
    years from now saying we need yet another extension. So we are
    working on this together, and I appreciate that.
        With that, gentlemen, the Committee stands adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 12:11 p.m. the hearing was adjourned.]

                          APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

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