[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            U.S. DOLLARS SHOULD CREATE JOBS FOR U.S. WORKERS

                                 ______
                                 

                  HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN

                    of the northern mariana islands

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 15, 2012

  Mr. SABLAN. 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.

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