The Nation - News from Feb. 2, 1986

Congress has ordered the Pentagon to award contracts for work in Alaska only to contractors who agree to hire Alaska residents for the job. The directive, sponsored by Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska), is believed to be the first such order ever approved by Congress imposing a residency requirement on defense contractors. In a brief floor debate in the Senate last spring, Murkowski said he found it “unconscionable that when the (Alaskan) unemployment rate is high, out-of-state workers on federal contract are brought in to take limited jobs.”