[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 7, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO MODIFY THE REQUIREMENT TO REMAIN OUTSIDE OF 
      THE UNITED STATES FOR COMMONWEALTH ONLY TRANSITIONAL WORKERS

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                  HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN

                    of the northern mariana islands

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 7, 2023

  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, three years of pandemic have taken a toll on 
businesses nationwide and, especially, in isolated, one-industry 
economies like that of the Northern Mariana Islands.
  Policies that made sense before a pandemic shut down the tourism 
industry in the islands I represent are now actually making recovery 
more difficult.
  So, today, I am introducing legislation to ease the return to 
normalcy by recognizing the impact of the pandemic.
  My bill will delay for three years the effective date of a provision 
of the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act, Public Law 115-218, 
that is making it more expensive and more difficult for businesses in 
my district to recover.
  This is the so-called ``touchback'' provision of that law that 
requires employers to send certain foreign workers back to their home 
country at least every three years. Doing so has, of course, proven 
problematic during the pandemic, when airflights were interrupted and 
increasingly costly. In some cases, home country ingress provisions 
made it difficult for workers to return.
  In the meantime, the purpose of the touchback requirement has been 
fulfilled. It was intended to reduce reliance on foreign workers and 
encourage investment in U.S. workers. And that is precisely what has 
occurred, even without implementation of touchback.
  During the pandemic the number of U.S. workers employed in the 
Marianas has held steady near 13,000, according to the most recent 
report from the Governor required by the U.S. Workforce Act. The number 
of foreign workers, according to the Governor, has fallen from about 
8,000 to 6,000.
  Even without the requirement that certain foreign workers return home 
at least every three years, Marianas businesses appear to have shifted 
to a relatively greater reliance on U.S. workers. This is precisely the 
intent of Public Law 115-218.
  Rather than striking the requirement from the law altogether, 
however--as considering this shift touchback may now seem unnecessary--
my bill takes a more conservative approach to delay the effective date 
for three years, matching the duration of the pandemic.
  The bill also makes clear the intent of the law's authors--Chair Rob 
Bishop and Ranking Member Raul Grijalva of the House Natural Resources 
Committee, Chair Lisa Murkowski of the Senate Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee, and me--with respect to the timing of touchback, 
as explained in our letter of July 22, 2020, to Samantha Deshommes, 
Chief of the Regulatory Coordination Division of the U.S. Citizenship 
and Immigration Services.
  Ultimately, I respect the bipartisan agreement on a reasonable 
immigration policy unique to the Marianas that is embodied in the 
Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act. Circumstances now warrant 
fine-tuning the touchback provision. Ultimately, however, I want to see 
that bipartisan policy through to its conclusion in 2030.

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