However, the legislature implemented an earned income credit which was repealed after Tenorio left office because there were not enough funds to pay for it.
Federal legislation signed nearly a decade after Tenorio left office altered the minimum wage regulations and immigration system of the CNMI.
Governor Tenorio has pushed forward with a program of privatization, fiscal restraint, and lower taxes for his people.
Ultimately, the nominee of the Republican Party, former governor Pedro P. Tenorio, won the election easily with 45.6% of the vote.
By the end of Tenorio's term, the CNMI government had paid the lobbyists a total of $5.21 million in public funds.
There, Tenorio met with Republican leadership in Congress, including Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), and several others.
These same congressmen would later lead efforts to extend the CNMI's exemptions from federal minimum wage and immigration laws.
On the October 1997 trip Tenorio also met with leaders of the Choctaw tribe in Mississippi, another Abramoff client for whom DeLay manipulated legislation.
Around this time, Rohrabacher attacked proponents of subjecting the CNMI to federal minimum wage and immigration laws on the House floor, calling descriptions of the human rights violations going on in the CNMI "nonstop, politically driven attack[s] on the government and people of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
"[9] Abramoff later arranged an all-expenses paid trip to the CNMI capital, Saipan, for Rep. DeLay on New Year's Eve in 1997.
[11] After the trip, Abramoff helped DeLay craft policy that extended exemptions from federal immigration and minimum-wage labor laws to Saipan industries.
[12] Ultimately, the CNMI ended its relationship with Preston Gates and Jack Abramoff in 2001, years after it was originally ended by Froilan Tenorio's successor, Pedro P. Tenorio, only to have the contract renewed by the commonwealth legislature under the direction of then-Speaker of the House Benigno R. Fitial.
The order stated: In order to assure the accountability of government managers, all officials at or above the level of division director, or the equivalent by whatever title known, shall be appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the Governor, provided that such official shall report to and serve under the direction of the head of any supervisory official, such as a department head.In December 1995, Tenorio appointed Jose A. Sonoda as Director of the Division of Customs Services within the CNMI government's Department of Finance.
Sonoda signed a two-year contract and a "Conditions of Employment" agreement, the latter of which made reference to the fact that government employees would serve at the pleasure of the governor under E.O.
Three days prior to his termination, Sonoda had testified at a legislative hearing; believing that his termination was revenge by the Democratic Governor Tenorio for his apparent Republican leanings in this testimony, Sonoda filed a lawsuit in district court against Cabrera and Tenorio, alleging that they had violated his rights under the United States Constitution to freedom of speech and due process.
In April 1997, the Supreme Court answered that Tenorio had exceeded his executive power, granted under Article III of the CNMI's constitution: While this Court recognizes that the Governor may reallocate offices for "efficient administration" subject to Legislative approval sixty days after submission, the Executive may not create a system whereby employment positions would be created and appointed at his pleasure.
In 2001, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed this decision, ruling that the defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity: Regardless of whether the defendants reasonably believed Sonoda to be an exempted employee, this was legal error because even an at-will employee cannot be terminated if the reason for the termination was the exercise of constitutionally protected First Amendment freedoms.
[16]The appellate court also held that the defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity in the due process claim either, as the Northern Mariana Islands Supreme Court had ruled that only the legislature could make exemptions from the civil service system in Manglona v. Civil Service Commission in 1992, thus making it a well-established precedent by the time Tenorio and Cabrera fired Sonoda.
During the 1997 gubernatorial election, Tenorio was heavily criticized when there were reports of $29 million missing from the CNMI's trust account for tax rebates.
[19] He later said in an interview that if elected he would seek to restore the earned income credit, an anti-poverty program implemented by his administration in the 1990s, to increase employment and purchasing power.