Open Letter to Chairman French Hill, Secretaries Bessent, Lutnick, and Loeffler, and the House Committees on Financial Services and Small Business: Advance the Strengthened Pacific Territories Digital
- CNMIGA .ORG
- 3 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Date: April 5, 2026
Dear Chairman Hill, Secretaries Bessent, Lutnick, and Loeffler, and Distinguished Committee Members:
On behalf of CNMIGA.ORG and the CNMI Growers Association, I submit this open letter with the attached America First in the Pacific: Digital Sovereignty Edition (Delegate Kim King-Hinds Copy) and the full 68-page congressional policy report.
Read:>>> DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
We implore you to immediately consider, mark up, and advance the Strengthened Pacific Territories Digital Payment Equity and AI Readiness Act of 2026.
This legislation directly mandates that Shopify, Etsy, Stripe, Braintree, Square, and every major payment processor and e-commerce platform provide native, dedicated merchant accounts to U.S. territories (CNMI, Guam, American Samoa) and COFA partners (FSM, RMI, Palau). Braintree screenshots dated March 28, 2026 — attached as forensic evidence — prove the current exclusion is deliberate, structural, and systemic.
This is not a technical glitch. It is digital disenfranchisement of American soil in the Second Island Chain.
We must first address a troubling pattern of retaliation.
For months, CNMIGA.ORG and I, Zaji “Persona Non Grata” Zajradhara, have repeatedly briefed Delegate Kimberlyn “Kim” King-Hinds’ office on this exact crisis and urged her to introduce or co-sponsor the Digital Payment Equity and AI Readiness Act before the Republican House Small Business Committee, the House Financial Services Committee, and relevant bank-regulation panels.
Instead of partnership, we have encountered silence, deflection, and outright retaliation.
On or about April 1, 2026, when a CNMIGA representative respectfully inquired about related taxpayer-funded travel policies in her Saipan district office, staff member “Jenna/Jeanie” (or similar) abruptly slammed the phone down, terminating the call without response, referral, or professional courtesy. This incident, detailed in our formal Ethics Committee complaint filed April 1, 2026, exemplifies a broader pattern:
Delegate King-Hinds has turned a blind eye to the digital exclusion crisis despite multiple briefings, limited her NDAA amendments to physical infrastructure only, and failed to extend support to digital payment equity or AI readiness.
Such conduct chills constituent advocacy and undermines the America-First mandate she was elected to uphold.
Congressional and executive leadership must now act independently.
The Pacific territories and COFA partners cannot wait while one elected representative prioritizes other agendas.
Chairman Hill, Secretaries Bessent, Lutnick, and Loeffler, and the Small Business Committees — your agencies and committees hold the direct authority to break this digital blockade.
Here are five strong, evidence-based reasons why the Secretaries of the Treasury, Commerce, and SBA, working with the Financial Services and Small Business Committees, must move this bill forward immediately:
Developing Economies: CNMI’s 38% poverty rate, Guam’s 20.2%, and FSM outer-island cash economies exceeding 70% trap our territories in pre-digital stagnation. ASEAN races toward a $410 billion digital economy by 2030. The Act unlocks $500 million+ in annual lost e-commerce revenue and $2–3 billion in cumulative GDP gains (2026–2030), converting cash-based dependency into export-driven growth. Treasury and Commerce already disburse billions under COFA; this legislation ensures those dollars generate independent revenue rather than perpetual grants.
Self-Sustainability: Federal COFA disbursements ($6.5 billion+ through 2043) and NDAA infrastructure funds cannot scale without digital rails. The Act mandates dedicated merchant accounts and AI-compliant processors, ending reliance on manual invoicing and federal grants. SBA’s March 9, 2026, citizenship-prioritization policy is meaningless if territorial applicants cannot verify payments. This bill delivers true economic sovereignty — precisely what America-First policy demands.
3. Small-Business Development: Sixty percent of CNMI establishments are indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian-owned. The Act requires Shopify, Etsy, Stripe, Braintree, Square, and all major platforms to provide native systems, enabling small businesses to access global markets, diversify beyond tourism and military contracting, and build resilient local enterprises. SBA’s microloan and working-capital programs will finally reach Pacific entrepreneurs instead of stalling at the payment-verification barrier.
4. AI Adoption: The White House National AI Policy Framework (March 2026) and DOL AI Literacy Framework explicitly call for innovation sandboxes and AI-ready exports. The Act creates territorial AI sandboxes linked to aiexports.gov, letting Pacific businesses test and monetize AI-driven services — the same infrastructure ASEAN nations already enjoy. Commerce’s AI Exports initiative cannot succeed while processors block onboarding. This legislation aligns territorial policy with the Trump Administration’s national AI blueprint.
5. Workforce Development: DOL AI Literacy training is producing thousands of skilled Pacific workers who currently cannot monetize their skills online. The Act removes the verification barrier, enabling 2,500–3,500 new jobs, remittances, and tax revenue while reversing youth emigration and building a future-ready workforce. Treasury, Commerce, and SBA oversight of COFA and territorial programs must include this digital equity component or the training dollars will be wasted.
Chairman Hill, the Second Island Chain’s economic resilience is a national-security imperative.
Digital exclusion is not a local issue — it is a strategic vulnerability that weakens American competitiveness against ASEAN’s AI-powered fintech surge.
We stand ready to provide Braintree screenshots, merchant affidavits, economic modeling, live testimony, and the full 68-page report to any committee or agency.
We have already filed a formal Ethics Committee complaint documenting the retaliation and staff misconduct; we ask that you treat this digital-sovereignty crisis with the urgency it deserves.
The time for study is over.
The screenshots are dated March 28, 2026.
The economic modeling is complete.
The White House AI Framework is published.
Congress and the executive branch now have everything required to act.
We urge you to champion the Strengthened Pacific Territories Digital Payment Equity and AI Readiness Act of 2026 without delay.
American citizens in the Pacific have waited long enough.
Thank you for your America-First leadership.
Respectfully submitted,
Zaji “Persona Non Grata” Zajradhara
Author & Advocate
Saipan, CNMI
cnmiga.org | @CnmigaOrg (X)
CCD:
Chairman French Hill
House Committee on Financial Services
2129 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Scott Bessent
Secretary of the Treasury
The Honorable Howard W. Lutnick
Secretary of Commerce
The Honorable Kelly Loeffler
Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration
Chairman Roger Williams
House Committee on Small Business
Chair Joni Ernst
Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship
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