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Jobs and Economic Development

Collins, King, Pingree Call on Trump Administration to Avoid Trade War with Canada

| Posted in Press Releases

Today, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, co-chair of the Senate American-Canadian Economy and Security (ACES) Caucus, and U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree, are calling on the Trump Administration to avoid a catastrophic trade war with Canada that would have huge and immediate impacts on Maine’s people and economy. In a letterto Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and…

Ranking Member Pingree: Reckless, Indiscriminate Purge of Public Servants Will Have Lasting Harmful Effects

| Posted in Press Releases

In letters sent today to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the United States Forest Service, and Department of the Interior (DOI), which encompasses eleven bureaus, including the National Park Service, House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree…

Ranking Member Pingree: Trump’s Park Service Hiring Freeze a Direct Hit to Acadia and the Economy

| Posted in Press Releases
Acadia entrance sign

Today, House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree warned the Trump Administration that its ill-conceived federal hiring freeze will jeopardize National Park Service (NPS) operations at national parks like Acadia. Pingree called on Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to immediately resume all seasonal hiring for the NPS and emphasized that…

Pingree Joins President Biden to Celebrate National Monument Designation for Frances Perkins Homestead

| Posted in Press Releases
CP POTUS Frances Perkins Designation

Today, Maine First District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree joined President Joe Biden and Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su to announce that the Frances Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine has been granted National Monument status—furthering the Administration’s goal to more fully recognize the contributions women have made to our country. The designation follows months of advocacy by…

Pingree, King, Mills Lead Push to Extend Immigrant, Asylum Seeker Work Permits as Backlog Threatens Jobs

| Posted in Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Senator Angus King, and Governor Janet Mills are leading a push to codify the temporary rule granting a 540-day automatic extension to expiring work authorizations for immigrants and asylum seekers. This comes as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continues to work through an extensive backlog in work permit processing, putting…

Pingree: Release of Additional H-2B Visas a Win for Maine’s Small Businesses and Economy

| Posted in Press Releases
Department of Homeland Security

Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) welcomed news from the Biden-Harris Administration that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Labor (DOL) will double the number of available H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas available for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 to nearly 131,000. The additional 64,716 H-2B visas that will be available is on top of…

VIDEO: In Homeland Security Appropriations Markup, Pingree Leads Push for Increased H-2B Visas

| Posted in Press Releases

Senior House Appropriator Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today led a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal Year 2025 Homeland Security Appropriations bill to increase the cap on seasonal labor visas, or H-2B visas. The amendment, co-led by Pingree alongside Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), comes as Maine enters its busy tourism season and continues to face a worker shortage.…

Let asylum seekers work

| Posted in Blog Posts

Read my op-ed in the Portland Press Herald What do Manhattan and Maine have in common? Most would say not too much. Typically, they would be right. Yet the Big Apple and the Pine Tree State face a pair of common challenges today: historically tight labor markets and an influx of people desperately seeking asylum. Like other cities and states coming out of the pandemic, Maine is…

Pingree Recognized for Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Efforts, Accepts ILAP’s Policy Leader Award

| Posted in Press Releases

Tonight, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) accepted the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project’s (ILAP) 2023 Policy Leader award in recognition of her work and leadership in Congress to speed up asylum seeker work authorizations. Pingree accepted the award at an event in Portland on Wednesday night, where she dedicated the award to her Portland-based constituent services team.  “I’m…

Collins, King, Pingree Announce $199K to Support Penobscot Nation Ocean and Coastal Priorities

| Posted in Press Releases

U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King and Representative Chellie Pingree announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded the Penobscot Indian Nation $199,998 to increase the tribe’s involvement and support of energy, climate change and ocean-related issues. Funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and dispersed via NOAA’s Regional…

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