WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU) said Friday that House and Senate conferees have reached a consensus on a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 that would help resolve Guam\u2019s H-2B visa crisis.<\/p>\n
Bordallo, as the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee\u2019s Readiness Subcommittee, is a member of the conference committee.<\/p>\n
The provision adopted by the conference committee\u2014which was reconciled from the differences between the House and Senate versions of the NDAA\u2014extends Guam\u2019s exemption from the national H-2B visa cap until 2023 and would allow up to 4,000 H-2B visas per year to be approved for Guam. <\/p>\n
The provision further provides clear flexibility for the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services to approve H-2B visas for prime contractor or subcontractor services or labor required for construction, repair, renovation, or facility services directly connected to, or associated with, the Marine realignment. <\/p>\n
The conference agreement must be approved by the full House and Senate before it is presented to President Trump for enactment.<\/p>\n
\u201cUSCIS\u2019 nearly 100 percent denial of H-2B visa applications for Guam has strained our economy and negatively impacted our ability to meet labor demands. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this is not a full solution for all business sectors, it does provide some relief to meet construction demands inside and outside the gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, I am hopeful the Trump administration will work with me on this broader solution and fulfill President [Donald J.] Trump\u2019s personal commitment to Gov. [Eddie] Calvo this past weekend to resolve Guam\u2019s non-defense H-2B visa shortages.\u201d (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU) said Friday that House and Senate conferees have reached…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8756,51,15255,14651],"class_list":["post-264339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-fiscal-year","tag-guam","tag-president-trump","tag-readiness-subcommittee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}