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GAO-24-106698 1 (2024-02-13)

handle is hein.gao/gaopwj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Why This Matters Key Takeaways The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a U.S. territory that consists of 14 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, just north of Guam and about 3,200 miles west of Hawaii. In 2020, CNMI's population was just over 47,000, according to the U.S. census. CNMI's economy has historically relied on foreign workers, who made up more than 50 percent of workers for the decade before the passage of the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA).1 Under the CNRA, the Department of Homeland Security established a temporary foreign worker permit program for CNMI in 2011 called the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) program. The CW-1 program was to provide for an orderly transition from CNMI's immigration system to the U.S. system. The Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act of 2018 (the Act) extended the CW-1 program through December 31, 2029.2 The Act sought, in part, to increase the percentage of U.S. workers in the total CNMI workforce while maintaining the minimum number of foreign workers to meet the changing demands of CNMI's economy.3 The Act calls for various reports on CNMI's progress toward this goal, including reports by the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Labor, CNMI, and GAO. The Act also requires the Governor of CNMI to send an annual worker ratio report to the Secretary of Homeland Security by November 1 of each year. The report must identify the ratio between U.S. workers and foreign workers in the Commonwealth's workforce based on income tax filings with the CNMI for the tax year. The Act also includes a provision for GAO to report every 2 years on the ratio between U.S. workers and foreign workers in the CNMI workforce in each of the previous 5 calendar years. This is our third report in response to the provision.4 We provide information in this report on U.S. and foreign workers in CNMI in calendar years 2018 through 2022 and assess the transparency of the analytical approach CNMI uses to create its annual ratio reports. * U.S. workers made up at least half of CNMI's employed workers between calendar years 2018 and 2022, according to our analysis of CNMI's data. When comparing 2018 to 2022, we found that the U.S. portion of the ratio increased. During this period, the total number of workers in CNMI declined by over 5,000, and the number of CW-1 permits issued per year dropped significantly. At the same time, the CNMI economy declined due to a typhoon, the COVID- 19 pandemic, and the shuttering of one of the largest local employers. CNMI improved its 2022 worker data, but opportunities exist to improve the transparency of the analytical approach used to create the annual worker Page 1 GAO-24-106698 Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

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