Ahead: NMBAC in Washington

Next week, the Northern Marianas Business Alliance Corporation is in Washington to talk about island workforce issues. We are scheduled to meet on Monday. I am looking forward to briefing NMBAC on progress the bicameral, bipartisan congressional working group is making to ensure we have sufficient labor to keep the Marianas economy going strong and to ensure that more and more local, U.S. workers join the labor force.

It is not easy to find policies that are acceptable across a wide range of ideologies and also have a chance of passage by the House and the Senate in the coming year. But the same group worked successfully on passage of my bill, H.R. 339, the Northern Mariana Islands Economic Expansion Act, which the President signed into law in August. So I am optimistic that we can also be successful putting together a long-term solution for our labor needs.