WASHINGTON — A little-publicized provision in the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill approved by the House last week would double the $10 billion cost of construction on Guam as part of the realignment of U.S. military forces in the Pacific.

The planned move of 8,000 U.S. Marines and about 3,600 other U.S. military troops and their dependents from Okinawa and mainland Japan to Guam over the next five years was originally expected to cost about $15 billion.

Of that total, $10 billion would be in construction of facilities, family housing and public utilities.

But a provision in last week's House bill would require that construction companies pay their employees working on Guam's realignment construction projects wages equivalent to rates in Hawai'i, which are 250 percent higher than those on Guam, according to the Joint Guam Program Office.

A Congressional Budget Office report estimates the growth in labor costs from this provision alone "would increase the need for discretionary appropriations by about $10 billion over the 2010-2014 period."

The provision was authored by Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. Another Abercrombie amendment would limit to 30 percent the proportion of foreign workers allowed to work on these projects. "This is a huge opportunity to put Americans to work, in an American territory, building an American military base," he said.

But Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., also an Armed Services Committee member, said during debate, "This provision will lead to inflated wages in Guam, while taking American jobs from construction projects in Texas, Maryland and Virginia."