Lets support our hometown heroes!
Guam Air National Guard 2022 Awards Ceremony
Through our Armed Forces Committee partnership with the local military commands, we are seeking contributions for prizes in the below categories to be presented at the Guam Air National Guard Awards banquet. Items such as brunches, lunches or dinners for two, weekend getaways, hotel overnight stays, shopping gift certificates, or optional tours are welcome. Any contribution you make will be greatly appreciated. 

We request that gift certificates be delivered to the Chamber Office by 2:00 p.m. on Friday, January 28th to allow time for preparation of packets for the awardees.  
 
If you have any questions, please call the Chamber Office at 472-6311/8001. Thank you for your generous support of our Air National Guard servicemen and women!
Save the Date:
ï»żJanuary 26 General Membership Meeting
Mark your calendar on Wednesday, January 26th for our first membership meeting of the year. Keep a look out for event details!
APRIL 30, 2022
SAVE THE DATE!
Your Chamber is looking forward to celebrating our 98th Anniversary with you on Saturday, April 30th! We'll be celebrating our members that are commemorating their own milestone anniversaries, too! Dust off those party outfits and pencil us in for a night of good people and milestone celebrations!

Table and sponsorship opportunities will be available soon!
REMINDER:
ZERO Plastic Bags in 2022
In case you haven't noticed, Guam has phased out the use of plastic bags since December 31, 2021. Paper bags for most retail and all wholesale establishments will be phased out by July 1, 2022 (with exemptions for eating establishments).
Keep those reusable tote bags handy!

View PL 35-130
Job Opportunities
Does your company have any job openings you would like us to promote? Send us information and we can post on our website.

Email Rebekah to get started!
Small Business Relief and
ï»żSupport Available through LEAP
ï»żApplications now available
Governor Lou Leon Guerrero announces the opening of the application period for the Local Employers’ Assistance Program (LEAP) will be at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, December 20, 2021. LEAP was established through Executive Order 2021-25 and will provide direct financial assistance to small businesses that experienced extreme levels of pandemic-related interruption. 

LEAP funding will be prioritized for the following:
  • Small businesses that can demonstrate a business interruption rate of 50% or greater; and 
  • Small businesses that have been verified as a “covered establishment” pursuant to Department of Public Health & Social Services requirements and that can demonstrate a business interruption rate of 20% or greater.

LEAP provides loans to small businesses that meet all eligibility criteria, chief among them a demonstration of business interruption experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Loan funds can be used for eligible business operating expenses with a focus on ensuring that businesses have adequate resources to maintain and possibly increase employment. Loans may be forgiven if at least 60% of all proceeds are used for eligible employee wage and benefit costs.
FREE ON-SITE COVID TESTING 
Guam has a new on-site Covid testing option, which makes it convenient for your company to test at your place of business.

USA Medical LLC, a company focused on developing safe, accurate, and fast COVID-19 test kits, announced the immediate availability of free test kits for all organizations. Organizations include schools, colleges, prisons, businesses, government organizations, shelters, manufacturing plants, and other organizations with individuals in close proximity to each other.
 
The federal CARES Act has provided $10 Billion in CDC funding that allows for FREE in-house Covid testing for all organizations and businesses. These tests are easy to administer, and results are reported confidentially to your organization within 48 hours of receiving your samples. NO personal information is collected from your employees during the entire process. The process is simple: Organizations contact the local representative, Phil Leddy, to schedule their day/time for the weekly testing. A trained professional will be present to administer the tests on-site (est. 2 mins per person). The tests are mailed to company labs in Hawaii. 

Working with CDC Guidelines, the goal is to quickly track any virus spread to keep your employees and students safe during current uncertain pandemic-related times. Everything is no charge, FDA approved, 100% accurate, and organizations are notified within 48 hours after the ones that tested positive, and all results are accessible via our secure web portal.  **These tests detect new COVID strains/variants, including Omicron.
Organizations can schedule and order their Free Covid tests by reaching out to Phil Leddy II at (671) 777-0240 or emailing at marianasfreecovidtesting@gmail.com. 

U.S. Chamber Updates
Pinning Inflation on Businesses is Biden Administration’s ‘Attempt to Shift Blame’

The Biden administration started 2022 where they left off in 2021: Attacking businesses for inflation. This week, the President blamed high food prices on consolidation in the meat packing industry.

Why it matters: “This is an attempt to shift blame,” Chamber Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley told Fox Business today. “What we should be focused on are these other factors driving inflation: the demand increases produced by the pandemic; these inflationary policies from the Federal Reserve and the Biden administration.”
  • “If we follow through with the Build Back Better program the President is desperately trying to get through Congress, we will pour gasoline on the fire of demand.”

Be smart: This is part of a bigger attack on businesses. The administration is attempting to use higher prices to justify their preexisting agenda to overturn decades of bipartisan consensus around antitrust and competition policy in favor of a ‘government-knows-best’ regulatory approach.

  • That isn’t economics, it is politics and sadly, such government intervention would likely further constrain supply and push prices even higher.

Bottom line: Every business is a target. “When you look at the agenda out of the FTC
 what they’re looking to do is fundamentally restructure the economy,” Bradley warned.

Inflation Acceleration
Be smart:
  • Growth in 2021 Q4 and 2022 Q1 looks strong: We estimate growth of between 6.5% and 7% for the fourth quarter of 2021 and over 4% for the first quarter of 2022.
  • Inflation remains high: The broadest measure of consumer prices rose 6.8% in November – the largest increase since June 1982. Hopefully we see some easing in these figures in December, but even with some decline they will be too high
  • Supply chain still backed up: Boats waiting to be unloaded at the LA and Long Beach ports averaged 84 in December. That is up from 70 in November. So things are getting worse. This will continue to constrain growth.
  • Workers still hard to come by: Job openings data for the end of November comes out tomorrow. In October, there were more than 11 million job openings and less than 8.5 million available workers. As long as this unprecedented gap remains, it will slow the economy, make it harder to repair the supply chain, and put upward pressure on inflation.
—Curtis Dubay, Senior Economist, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Articles of Interest:



Resources & Planning
GVB
December 24th
Industry Recovery Report
Live Interviews for Employment Opportunities on the Tony Talks Show
Do you have employment opportunities or will be hosting a job fair? Tony Lamorena is open to a call, Zoom or live interview to get the word out to the community on his show.