Cohen: Community must unite to ensure federalization works for NMI
By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff
The former ranking federal official who drafted the first CNMI federalization bill under the Bush administration says the local community should "unite" and work with the people who will draft the regulations that will implement it.
David Cohen, the former deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, told Variety in an e-mail that the CNMI people should celebrate the fact that once S. 2739 is enacted into law, they will finally have U.S. congressional representation.
And "the CNMI’s member of Congress will have to make sure that the CNMI’s unique needs are taken care of."
The CNMI is the only U.S. insular area without a nonvoting delegate in the U.S. Congress.
Cohen said the CNMI should also ensure that the new immigration regulations that will be imposed can help promote economic growth.
"The new law can be implemented in a way that is great for everyone in the CNMI, or it can be implemented in a way that is harmful," said Cohen.
"The community now needs to unite and engage constructively with the people who will be drafting the regulations to make sure that they follow the statute’s mandate to be flexible and support economic growth."
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will lead at least four federal agencies in implementing the federal guest worker transition program.
The federalization legislation included in S. 2739 will take effect one year, which can be extended to six more months, after it is signed into law.
Cohen noted that people who argued over federalization now find themselves on the same side.
"People on both sides argued passionately for what they thought was right. Now, people who had been on opposite sides suddenly find themselves on the same side. Everyone in the CNMI wants this to be implemented in a manner that’s good for the CNMI," said Cohen.
"Everyone wants businesses to do well so that they can provide jobs to locals and guest workers alike. Everyone wants tourism to boom," he added.
Cohen now works for Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, a business, litigation and regulatory law firm with approximately 500 attorneys with offices in Seattle and Bellevue Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles, San Francisco, California; New York, New York; Washington, D.C., Anchorage, Alaska; and Shanghai, China.