Senator Jesse A. Lujan is calling on the White House to exempt Guam from a newly announced $100,000 H-1B visa petition fee, warning it could devastate the island’s healthcare system and drive up costs for defense construction projects. In a letter to Vince Haley, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Lujan stressed Guam’s unique challenges as a U.S. territory with a small labor pool and federally designated healthcare shortages.
“The imposition of a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions will disproportionately burden Guam in many aspects, and the most concerning is the impact it could have on our healthcare system,” Lujan said. He noted that H-1B workers are vital to filling shortages in physicians, pharmacists, therapists, specialists, and laboratory staff. He also pointed to the potential impact on defense contractors tasked with completing military buildup projects central to U.S. national security in the Indo-Pacific.
To mitigate the impact, Lujan outlined three options for the administration: exempting Guam entirely from the fee, granting categorical exemptions for healthcare and defense-related positions, or authorizing a pilot program exempting Guam petitions for a limited time while data is collected. He argued that federal policies often fail to account for the unique needs of territories like Guam, where national mandates can unintentionally harm local systems.
“Guam’s circumstances demand tailored solutions to ensure that national mandates do not unintentionally harm our people, our healthcare system, or our defense readiness,” Lujan said. He pledged to continue pressing federal partners for territorial considerations and offered to provide workforce data to support the administration’s decision-making.