Paid Military and Emergency Service Leave for CNMI Government Employees

This one is for the serving member who works for the Commonwealth government, and it changed recently. Public Law 24-18, the Military and Emergency Service Leave Act of 2025 (House Bill 24-54), was signed on November 26, 2025 and took effect on approval. It enacted a new Article 5 in the government employees part of Title 1 of the Commonwealth Code and doubled the paid military leave available to government employees from 15 to 30 working days per calendar year, citing the federal increase from 15 to 20 days in section 1109 of the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. Who it covers. Every permanent employee of the Commonwealth government, in the executive, legislative and judicial branches and in any autonomous agency, office, board, authority, commission or instrumentality, who is a member of the National Guard, a reserve component of the Armed Forces, the FEMA Reservist Program, the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, or any other uniformed service covered by USERRA. The Guard reference matters here in a particular way: the Commonwealth has no Guard of its own, and residents who want Guard service join the Guam National Guard. The Act names "the United States National Guard" without tying it to any one state or territory, so a Commonwealth employee drilling with Guam qualifies. When it applies. The member must be ordered to perform active duty, training, emergency response or other authorized service under competent military, federal or state authority, including service in a national emergency, disaster or other major incident. Leave is granted on presentation of valid orders or other appropriate documentation. The cap and what happens beyond it. The paid leave is capped at 30 working days per calendar year. The cap does not stop an employee from using other accrued leave for absences beyond it. The Civil Service Commission and every other branch and agency had 120 days from the effective date to adopt implementing rules, and any existing regulation or policy inconsistent with the Act is superseded to the extent of the inconsistency, so an agency handbook that still says 15 days is out of date. This is paid leave from the employer, and it sits on top of the federal USERRA rights to unpaid leave and reemployment, which apply in the Commonwealth on their own terms. The Act names permanent employees only, so temporary and contract staff should not count on it, and it does not reach private employers.