CNMI Senate confirmation hearings to begin March 1

Sen. Celina Roberto Babauta has scheduled the first set of confirmation hearings for Gov. Arnold Palacios’s cabinet appointments.

“I hereby call the Executive Appointments and Government Investigations Committee to convene on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.,” Ms. Babauta wrote to the members of the EAGI committee, which she chairs, this week.

The first confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. that day to question Mary Margaret Santos Sablan and to hear testimony for and against her nomination as Secretary of Community and Cultural Affairs. Citizens also may submit written testimony to the committee.

Then, at 2 p.m. that day, the committee will begin their questioning of Sylvan Olopai Igisomar on his nomination as Secretary of Land and Natural Resources. As with Ms. Sablan’s confirmation hearing, the public is invited to submit written or make oral testimony in favor or against Mr. Igisomar’s nomination.

“We have reviewed your nomination packet for completeness and the EAGI Committee has determined that it is suitably complete,” Ms. Babauta wrote to both nominees.

The EAGI Committee, under the leadership of its new chairwoman, is anticipated to scrutinize the credentials and character of the governor’s nominees for his cabinet far more scrupulously than legislatures in recent memory.