By Rep. Marissa Flores, CNMI House of Representatives Floor Leader
My hope for the Marianas has always been simple: that the people who live here get to live well. Not just survive. Not just hold on. Every island. Every family. Rota, Tinian, the northern islands — the Marianas is not whole without them, and it never has been.
I also need to be honest about something. Legislation takes time. Votes take negotiation, compromise, and often more time than people who are hurting right now can afford to wait. The executive branch does not have to wait. The Governor has tools available to him today: emergency directives, executive orders, and the ability to push hard at the federal level on our behalf. That is the power I am calling on. That is the power the people of the CNMI are asking to see used.
Because the problems in front of us are not new, and they are not small.
A lot of families are still living with what Sinlaku left behind. I do not mean that as a figure of speech. Their roofs are still damaged. Business owners are still doing math they don’t like, trying to decide if they can keep going or if they have to walk away. The storm passed. The hardship did not.
And then there is fuel. The electricity surcharge has, at times, effectively tripled what people pay per kilowatt-hour on top of the base rate. Power utility costs have more than doubled. Think about what that actually means for a family already stretched thin, choosing between keeping the lights on and keeping the refrigerator full. That is not a hypothetical. That is a real choice people in this community are making right now. For small business owners, that choice often comes down to staying open or closing the door. Twenty-four businesses closed in 2023. Twenty-four more in 2024. Those are not statistics. Those are people who built something and had to walk away from it.
Cutting government work hours to twenty a week cuts people’s income in half. A parent cannot cover rent on twenty hours. People start doing the math on whether staying here makes any sense at all. Too many, especially young people, are running those numbers and leaving. And when they leave, they take everything with them. Their skills, their energy, their future. Every person who goes is someone we do not get back.
And then there is this, and I want people to really hear it. Our frontline workers. Police officers. Firefighters. Public safety personnel. People who showed up during the typhoon, who work through the night, who put themselves between danger and the rest of us. They have not been paid for overtime hours they already worked. Hours already given. And their families, their spouses and parents and children, have been calling the Department of Finance just to ask where their paycheck is. That should not be happening once. The fact that it is a pattern that has gone on for years is something this community should not accept, and the Governor should not either. The authority to direct the Department of Finance to pay these workers sits in the executive branch. Not next session. Not after a vote. Right now. So why hasn’t it been done?
We cannot move forward when everything we do keeps us in the same place. Business as usual is not a neutral choice. It is a decision to let things get worse. Change must happen. Reorganization must happen. Moving resources into enforcement must happen so that the government can actually collect the revenue this community needs and is owed. That is not a radical idea. That is basic governance.
And while we are being honest, let us talk about the Covenant and what our political union with the United States actually means. We are not a charity case. We are partners. We entered into this relationship with the United States in good faith, and that Covenant carries obligations that run both ways. Yet we watch billions of dollars flow to countries that are not even allies, while we, the people of the CNMI, who carry U.S. passports, who serve in the U.S. military at rates higher than most states, who sit at what they themselves call the tip of the spear in the Pacific, are left fighting for scraps. That is not partnership. That is neglect dressed up in diplomatic language. The Governor has standing to demand more. The Covenant gives us that standing. And the United States needs to be reminded that we are not here with our hands out. We are here honoring a commitment we made, and we expect the same in return.
The Governor can act on all of these things. Not eventually. Now. I am asking him to. The people of the CNMI are asking him to. They have been patient. They have been waiting. It is time to step up: visibly, urgently, and without delay.
Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NMI News Service or its staff. All assertions are the sole responsibility of the writer. To submit an op-ed for consideration, email your piece to brad.ruszala@nminewsservice.com.