In regional news, a Saipan lawmaker wants to strengthen whistleblower protections for government employees. Rep. Leila Staffler introduced the Commonwealth-wide Whistleblower Protection Act of 2021 to expand the scope of what's currently on the books for all Government employees.

"I looked up the whistleblower statute just to see what is it, to see how it applies right now and this was it in its entirety. Or is it entirely because my bill is still in the process. But that's it! One page, not even a full page. And it only really was applicable to making a complaint on information to the public auditor it did not really expand beyond the public auditor for waste and abuse and collection of funds," she said.

She says she wants to protect those working for the government and its something she's heard a lot about from her constituents when it comes to ethical issues in government.

"Looking at that I started researching with my awesome teams in the legislature to find ways that we could expand these protections to include personnel practices in particular. Its also going to create a way for payout for people to report waste and abuse in the current statute it does not have a mechanism for payouts," she said.

She outlined some of the whistleblowing cases she's heard of, saying, "People have said what is going on. They stopped that thing, but they could not get the reward because there is no mechanism to get the reward. So that is one of the things that was fixed in my version of the bill."

She and other legislators are also examining labor laws where they could offer protection. "For this in particular it tries to expand [under] personnel retaliation and retribution that happens in personnel practices in particular. That is where we see a lot of things happen especially in the political season so this would be another layer of protection for people for people to not be forced into doing things they would not want to do just to keep a job," Staffler said.

So why now?

"I would say it is in response to any administration that has taken its employees and used them as pawns in order to further their agenda that is not for the whole people. When you are trying to preserve your place in power by moving people around or by threatening to them with their livelihood it is really hard to feel at peace in your own home and everybody is just trying to make a living. Everybody is just trying to feed their families," she said.