WASHINGTON —Congressional negotiators reached agreement today on defense legislation that would ensure that many of the jobs created on Guam by the movement of Marines go to American workers from Hawaii and the Mainland.

The 2010 defense authorization bill contains provisions by Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, that would strip away some incentives for bringing foreign workers to Guam, while establishing greater federal oversight of the massive project there.
The transfer of 8,000 Marines and their estimated 9,000 family members — from Okinawa to Guam — is scheduled to begin next year with work on infrastructure. It will cost at least an estimated $15 billion and is expected to generate thousands of jobs and scores of large contracts.
Abercrombie, who is running for governor, feared foreign companies would underbid American firms for much of the work and flood Guam with underpaid foreign labor, while construction workers on Hawaii and the Mainland languished.
“This (bill) puts some genuine competition back into play,” said Abercrombie, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.
Lawmakers are scheduled to pass the legislation this week. It would authorize almost $700 billion in defense spending.
Abercrombie’s Guam provisions in the bill would:
— Require that contractors advertise and recruit American workers before foreign workers can be hired.
— Give the Labor Department broad oversight authority over contractors.
— Require that Guam’s prevailing wages be reassessed and, if necessary, adjusted so they’re more aligned with Mainland pay.
Abercrombie said he was extremely happy with the outcome of the defense bill today, even though much of his original language was changed.
For example, one measure would have required that 70 percent of the construction jobs be given to American workers and that they be paid wages comparable to those in Hawaii, which are almost twice as high as Guam’s.
That didn’t make it, but Abercrombie said it was simply a starting point for wage negotiations.