WASHINGTON — Billing it as a fitting "going-away present" for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), three Democratic House members Wednesday filed a bill to raise the minimum wage in the Northern Marianas and tighten immigration standards for the U.S. territory, which critics say has become a haven for apparel industry sweatshops.
Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), the lead sponsor, said DeLay repeatedly and corruptly blocked earlier efforts to impose U.S. labor and immigration standards, in order to help convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who represented the Pacific territory and textile firms there.
DeLay, the former House majority leader who was first elected to Congress 1984, will step down from his seat Friday. He faces a trial on campaign money-laundering charges.
"Let's give Tom DeLay a real going-away present," said Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte), who joined Miller and Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.) in filing the legislation.
Under the bill, the minimum wage in the territory, now $3.05 an hour, would be gradually raised to the U.S. level, $5.15 an hour. And manufacturers on the island would be barred from placing a "Made in USA" label on their clothing unless they met the new wage requirement and other U.S. workplace standards.
The measure would also eliminate the island territory's current exemption from U.S. immigration laws. That exemption has allowed apparel manufacturers to bring in thousands of low-wage workers from China, Thailand and the Philippines.
"For years, DeLay and Abramoff used their power and influence and corrupt practices to defend the indefensible," Miller said at a midday Capitol Hill news conference.
Noting that bills to raise the island wage passed the Senate repeatedly, only to be blocked by DeLay and his colleagues in the House, Miller said the Texas Republican and Abramoff were "running a protection racket." DeLay led some fellow representatives on a well-publicized trip to Saipan, the territory's seat of government, in 1998.
Abramoff and his lobbying firms collected more than $10 million in fees from garment manufacturers and the Northern Marianas government, according to lobbying reports and government documents. In e-mails made public last year, Abramoff bragged about his ties to DeLay and how they were working to block the wage bill.
Abramoff pleaded guilty this year to fraud, tax evasion and conspiring to bribe members of Congress.
DeLay did not respond to a request for comment.
