Kilili bill requires 60 percent local hire for federal projects

[B]WASHINGTON, D.C.[/B]—CNMI Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday a bill that would require that 60 percent of workers on any federally funded construction project in the Northern Marianas be U.S. workers. The requirement would only apply to larger projects over $100,000. The bill responds to the unemployment situation faced by many local workers in the Marianas, who want jobs, but are passed over by employers.

Sablan submitted the following introductory statement for inclusion in the Congressional Record:

“Mr. Speaker: We have to ensure that U.S. workers get jobs. So, today I am introducing legislation that requires that on federally funded construction projects in my district, the Northern Mariana Islands, at least 60 percent of the workforce has to be U.S. workers.

“It is just common sense: U.S. dollars should employ U.S. workers.

“There is a threshold. This legislation only applies to projects that cost more than $100,000. We do not want to enact a law that unnecessarily delays spending or over-regulates business.

“But for larger projects funded with federal dollars—and in the Northern Marianas this means road construction, modernizing schools, putting in water lines—we need to make sure that the local, U.S. workers get most of the jobs. We need to make a stand for U.S. workers and for the families they support.

“I know that our national economy is still pulling itself out of the worst recession since the 1930s. Although we have seen almost 4 million jobs created in the last two years, we still have unacceptably high levels of unemployment.

“But, if you can imagine, in the Northern Marianas the situation is worse—and not improving. Even before the national recession began our economy was sinking. Our island gross domestic product has gone down every year since 2005—20 percent in 2009, the last year the Bureau of Economic Analysis has computed.

“We do not have unemployment data for the Northern Marianas, but we do know that our population has shrunk from 69,000 in 2000 to 54,000 in 2010. People have left because jobs have disappeared. I can say from personal observation and from talking with my constituents that there are many people in the Northern Marianas who want work and cannot get a job.

“I know, too, that many of the local U.S. workers in the Marianas who want to work are being passed over for the jobs that do exist.

“We have something like 11,000 foreign workers today in the Northern Marianas. One has to ask: How can we have so many foreign workers when there are U.S. workers unemployed who want to work.

“Something is not right.

“The workers I talk to have skills. They have a good work ethic. They are employable. Yet they are being passed over.

“We have to do more in this Congress for these U.S. workers. At the very least, we can say that when we appropriate federal dollars for construction projects in the Northern Marianas, those funds will put U.S. workers on the payroll.

“We are not even asking that all the workers be U.S. workers, only that most are U.S. workers. We understand that there may be some specialty skills U.S. workers do not have. Maybe there will be numerical shortages that need to be filled.

“But as long as we know that there are U.S. workers, who want jobs, who need to work, then let us make very sure that the federal dollars we provide to the Northern Mariana Islands put those U.S. workers to work.” [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]