{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sablan.house.gov/week-congress-2018-year-review", "THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS - 2018: The Year in Review", "2018-12-27", "2018", "2018-12", "Democrat", "House", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "2018: The Year in Review\n\nJanuary\nSablan, Murkowski intro CW bill\nSenator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and I introduced theNorthern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act.The bill gives the Marianas access to foreign labor for another 10 years and allows for 13,000 CW workers. The bill also creates a new category to give long-time foreign workers more certainty. (See box above for more details.) I have been working with Senator Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, since July 2017 on this long-term solution. She formed a working group to draft the new policy with myself and key Republicans and Democrats from the Senate and the House to help ensure the success of the legislation. I am very grateful to the Chairman and all the members of the working group. We put in many hours of discussion to reach today's agreement. There will be more fine-tuning in the days ahead, but we now have a solid foundation for a long-term labor policy for the Northern Marianas.See our news release for a more complete discussion of the bill.\nFebruary\nConfronting the opioid crisis.As Ranking Member of HELP  the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee  I opened our joint hearing with the Workforce Protection Subcommittee this week on the nationwide opioid epidemic. Billions are lost and the human toll is incalculable from the injuries, absenteeism, and lost productivity stemming from opioid abuse. We need safer workplaces, stronger consumer protections in health law, and greater access to treatment through Medicaid and other forms of health insurance to combat this problem.\nMarch\n\nStudents lead to stop gun violence.Along with Washington, D.C.-area students, I walked out on National Walkout Day. Sensible gun control policy is what these young adults seek. And I could not agree more. With at least 65 school shootings in the United States since the 2013 slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary, we have to act. Students like thesesmart, articulate, politically engagedshould give us all hope both for our country's future and its present. Their fearlessness can lead us all to take action on gun control.\n$1.3 trillion spending bill passes\nCongress enacted a $1.3 trillion omnibus appropriations law that funded the federal government through September 30, 2018. We kept funding steady or even increased for many federal programs President Trump wanted to cut back or eliminate. Many are important to the Marianas and on my priorities list submitted to the Appropriations Committee, including the preserved 1.5 percent set-aside in water and sewer grants for the Marianas and other insular areas that we began in 2010, and adds another $600 million for the programs nationwide.\nSee the text of the 2,232 page bill and explanatory reports and documents here.\nCODEL Murkowski.Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) led a congressional delegation, including Congresswoman Amata Aumua Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa) and myself, through the Pacific. Here, at Fiesta Resort, we gathered some of the island's female leaders to meet Rep. Radewagen and Sen. Murkowski and celebrate Women's Month in the Marianas. That time spent building consensus has made it possible to keep the bill moving quickly forward since we introduced it in January.\nApril\nVeterans Resource Fair a success. More than 300 veterans, service members, military family members, providers, and members of the public turned out for the 2018 Northern Marianas Veterans Resource Fairs, held on Rota, Tinian, and Saipan nearly double last year's turnout. Improving access to services for Marianas veterans and their families is one of my top priorities as a member of House Veterans Affairs Committee. And better access begins with raising awareness about the services that exist. Thanks to all who made this year's resource fairs such a success. For those who couldn't make it, theNMI Veterans Resource Directoryis available online.\nApp Challenge winners impress in DC.Daniel Villarmero and Chenoa Bunts-Anderson, Marianas winners of the Congressional App Challenge, showcased their work at the#HouseOfCodeDemo Day in Washington. Above, Rep. Steny Hoyer, the second highest ranking Democrat in the House, gets a rundown from Chenoa on the app,the Student Companion. Congratulations, Daniel and Chenoa!\nMay\nNew funds bring iPads to PSS. PSS is putting 3,000 new iPads in students' hands this year thanks to a funding formula I added to the Elementary Student Suceeds Act,U.S. Public Law 114-95, in 2015 bringing in $4.1 million this year. Dandan Elementary Tottots (above) showed off their new iPads when I came to visit. Kagman High School students are using iPads and robots to learn about coding, math, and problem-solving.\nRenovated troop store. The newly-renovated Saipan Army Reserve Center was unveiled and dedicated to the memory of Army SSG Wilgene Lieto and SPC Derence Jack of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry. The two soldiers gave their lives during service in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005. The $8 million project includes solar panels and a solar heater, water efficient fixtures, an expanded gym, a motor room, improved storage facilities, and central air conditioning. At the same time the Army and Air Force Exchange Service troop store had its grand opening. A study I included in the2011 National Defense Authorization Actdetermined the project to be viable and led to the 5,000-foot expansion of the store at a cost of $2.8 million. The facility serves 4,000 active and reserve service members, retirees, and their families.\nJune\nVeterans Clinic Signed Into Law\nMarianas veterans, who are not registered for VA health benefits, need to do so now. On Wednesday, President Trump signed theVA MISSION Act, which requires a feasibility study for a veterans' health clinic in the Marianas. I putSection 213into the legislation to advance the goal of getting our own Community-Based Outpatient Clinic. We are the only Pacific jurisdiction without a C-BOC. But, for the study to prove a need, we need every veteran to be counted. The more vets we have signed up with the VA, the more likely the study will justify the cost of building a clinic and hiring full-time VA medical staff to provide services. The VA now has 180 days to complete the study. Once doneand assuming we get the result we wantthen funding will be at the top of my to-do list, when the next Congress begins in January 2019. Getting a favorable feasibility study is the same strategy we used successfully to expand the AAFES troop store on Saipan.\nU.S. Workforce Act passes Congress. It's done! The U.S. Senate passed theNorthern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Actat 7:35 p.m. on June 28. Now the Act goes to the President for signature into law. It was a photo finish in the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office e-mailed at 7 p.m. it won't clear tonight. But we scrambled to identify which senator had a problem and resolved it in time to get unanimous consent for passage 35 minutes later. President Trump signed the bill into law on July 24.\nJuly\nCODIFY CNMI is up and running. Last year, Codify CNMI organizers Blane Wilson and Darren Demapan, both Stanford University graduates and passionate advocates for STEM education, asked me to introduce them to the CNMI Public School System's leadership to collaborate on a summer program to teach coding to middle and high school students. I put them in touch and got to see the results: a workshop in full swing at Dandan Middle School, with over a dozen students learning how to code. They are under the tutelage of Jailene Miranda-Enriquez, a computer science and education student at Stanford.Amazing work, students!. Thanks to Stanford, PSS, and Codify CNMI for making this wonderful opportunity available.\nAugust\nNDAA is law, $51m to Tinian divert\nPresident Trump signed theJohn S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019authorizing $50.7 million forAir Force divert airfield projects on Tinian. $46 million will go towards construction of a cargo pad with taxiway extension and $4.7 million for a maintenance support facility north of the Tinian airport.Section 2863bars any expenditure by the Defense Department for public infrastructure in the Marianas until an Economic Adjustment Committee reports to Congress on what civilian projects are needed to support proposed military activities. The report is due in May 2019. Only then would Congress decide whether to fund civilian infrastructure on Tinian or elsewhere. In all, the 2019 NDAA authorizes $717 billion for defense spending for fiscal 2019. It raises military pay by 2.6 percent and increases troop levels across the Armed Forces by about 16,000.\n\nSeptember\nMaking sure Rota is cared for.The people of Rota bore the brunt of Typhoon Mangkhut, so I was there the next day visiting families and making sure that federal agencies are doing everything to help Rota and the Commonwealth government respond. My job is to make sure that federal agencies are fully and quickly responsive to the needs of the families affected and are working well with the Commonwealth government and private organizations, like the Red Cross.\n\nOctober\nMore CIP for water possible\nThe Marianas could see twice as much funding for water projects thanks to theAmerica's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, signed into law by President Trump. The new law doubles the authorization for the Safe Drinking Water Act from the current $1 billion to $1.95 billion in 2021. This money is why CUC can now report all households on Saipan have 24-hour water. When I came into office, the Marianas only received $286,000 from the Safe Drinking Water Act. But in 2010I began increasing the insular area set-aside from 0.33 to 1.5 percent. The result, an average of $3.5 million annually or $34 million in total. A similar change in the set-aside formula for the Clean Water Act has meant another $37 million. The two programs work together. One brings water into the home. The other helps make sure that disposal is environmentally sound. The new law also cancels a proposed deauthorization of$20 million for Saipan water infrastructure, from the 2007 Water Resources Act. The Army Corps sought the deauthorization for this and hundreds of other projects nationwide, but Congress pushed back. Keeping the $20 million authorization means we can keep working for that funding in the next Congress. We need the money: theEnvironmental Protection Agency estimates $198.4 million is needed in the Marianasto provide potable water to all households and protect our environment.\n\nNovember\nHearing probes disaster response. As a guest of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I questioned FEMA Administrator Brock Long on his agency's delivery of services in the Marianas after Typhoon Mangkhut and Super Typhoon Yutu. The hearing was focused on recurring problems with disaster response nationwide, many of which we have seen in the Marianas. Watch a clip of my exchange with Mr. Long byclicking here.\nDecember\n$100M+ for Marianas recovery\nThere is at least $100 million for the Marianas inlegislation passed by the Houseon Thursday nightthe first time ever for our islands to be included in special disaster relief above and beyond what FEMA provides. The bill's fate in the Senate is undecided, as we go to press, because it includes a controversial $5 billion President Trump has demanded for a border wall. Incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi gave meher pledge of supportfor Marianas recovery a few days after Yutu struck, as did the incoming Chairman of the Appropriations Committee Nita Lowey, whenshe called on November 10. Since then, I have worked with appropriators on both sides of the aisle to ensure that any help for U.S. areas hit by natural disasters this year includes the Marianas.\nMourning President Bush. Former President George H.W. Bush lay in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol the week of his funeral. With other Members of Congress and thousands of the public, I paid my respects there to our 41st President, who is remembered as an unassuming man of the highest integrity and deepest patriotism. As Vice President, Bush visited Saipan in 1985, making him the highest-ranking U.S. government official ever to set foot in the Northern Marianas. He was laid to rest at the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://sablan.house.gov/week-congress-2018-year-review"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2032338418066502, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}