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Letter to the Hon. Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security - Enzi, Barrasso sign letter urging administration to increase the number of H-2B workers

Letter

By: French Hill, Mike Thompson, Ken Buck, Ed Perlmutter, Rob Woodall, Cindy Axne, Rodney Davis, Adam Kinzinger, Roger Marshall, Ron Estes, Andy Barr, Garret Graves, Andy Harris, Jack Bergman, Tim Walberg, Betty McCollum, Ann Wagner, Emanuel Cleaver II, Michael Guest, Donald Bacon, Joshua Gottheimer, Sean Maloney, Tom Reed II, Brad Wenstrup, Bob Gibbs, Steve Stivers, Frank Lucas, Matt Cartwright, Joe Cunningham, Dusty Johnson, Kay Granger, Bill Flores, John Carter, Chris Stewart, Morgan Griffith, Rick Larsen, David McKinley, Doug Jones, Johnny Isakson, Todd Young, Bill Cassidy, Thom Tillis, James Lankford, Lindsey Graham, Mike Rounds, Donald Young, David Schweikert, Scott Tipton, Jason Crow, Mike Waltz, Barry Loudermilk, Mike Bost, John Shimkus, Larry Bucshon, Sharice Davids, Thomas Massie, Ralph Abraham, Bill Keating, Chellie Pingree, John Moolenaar, Paul Mitchell, Peter Stauber, Vicky Hartzler, Trent Kelly, Kelly Armstrong, Jeff Van Drew, Lee Zeldin, Anthony Brindisi, Steve Chabot, Bill Johnson, Dave Joyce, Markwayne Mullin, Suzanne Bonamici, GT Thompson, Jr., Tom Rice, Mike Conaway, Vicente Gonzalez, Henry Cuellar, Rob Bishop, Denver Riggleman III, Peter Welch, Glenn Grothman, Dan Sullivan, Tom Carper, James Risch, Jerry Moran, Roy Blunt, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, John Thune, John Barrasso, Mike Enzi, Bruce Westerman, Diana DeGette, Doug Lamborn, Ted Yoho, Jody Hice, Mike Simpson, Lauren Underwood, Susan Brooks, Steven Watkins, Jr., Brett Guthrie, Clay Higgins, Jim McGovern, Dutch Ruppersberger, Bill Huizenga, Elissa Slotkin, Tom Emmer, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Billy Long, Patrick McHenry, Annie Kuster, Tom Malinowski, Elise Stefanik, Chris Collins, Bob Latta, Mike Turner, Anthony Gonzalez, Tom Cole, Guy Reschenthaler, Ralph Norman, Jr., Jim Cooper, Randy Weber, Sr., Roger Williams, Filemon Vela, Jr., Rob Wittman, Jennifer Wexton, Dan Newhouse, Lisa Murkowski, Michael Bennet, Mike Crapo, Pat Roberts, Susan Collins, Kevin Cramer, Ron Wyden, Tim Scott, Joe Manchin III
Date: March 7, 2019
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Business and Consumers Immigration

Dear Secretary Nielsen,

As you know, H. J. Res. 31 --Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 (Pub. L. 116-6), signed into law on February 15th, 2019, confers authority to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to, in her discretion and in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, release up to approximately 69,320 additional temporary, non-immigrant H-2B visas in excess of the statutory annual cap of 66,000.

According to Department of Labor (DOL) data, the demand for temporary, seasonal workers, with a start date between April 1, 2019 and the end of fiscal year 2019, exceeds 95,000 workers-- almost three times the number of available H-2B visas for that time period. Given the near historic low unemployment rate, the constant oversubscription to the program and its importance to our local economies, we strongly urge you to use the discretion afforded your office in the most recent appropriations bill to release, without delay and to the greatest extent allowed by law, additional H-2B visas sufficient to meet the certified demand of our seasonal employers.

If significant H-2B cap relief is not provided, there will be severe consequences for seasonal businesses and our economy generally. Several seasonal businesses denied access to the program due to the insufficient availability of visas have already been forced to scale back their operations, cancel or default on contracts, lay off full-time U.S. workers, and, in some cases, shutter their operations entirely. Failing to release additional H-2B visas will only result in more closures or scale backs for these businesses. We would also note that while we were pleased to see you exercise your discretion to release additional visas in previous years, the 15,000 additional visas released in both FY 17 & FY 18, were wholly inadequate to meet the demonstrated, certified needs of our seasonal employers.

Further, in past years, rulemaking associated with the release of additional visas significantly delayed our employers' access to them. We do not believe that additional rulemaking is required this year due to the timing of the law's enactment. In 2017 and 2018, Congress did not pass the DHS appropriations until April and March, respectively. The announcement of the release of the additional 15,000 visas in each of these years was not made until the summer (July 17, 2017 and May 31, 2018). At those times, both DHS and DOL asserted that additional rulemaking was required because labor certifications provided in early winter were deemed to have become "stale" necessitating a fresh test of the labor market. This is not the case now. This year's labor certifications have been issued within the past two (2) months and thus are concurrent with current labor market conditions. We urge the Department to announce quickly its intention to exercise the authority provided by Congress by providing the full amount of visas authorized and simply continue processing H-2B petitions until any additional visa allotment is exhausted.

As a result of the discretion conferred by the recently passed appropriations bill, your department has the opportunity to assist these seasonal employers by allowing them access to a labor pool that can meet their demonstrated and certified needs. As such, we urge you to expeditiously release a sufficient number of additional visas (up to the 69,320 allowed by law) to allow these vital businesses to continue to fulfill their contracts, retain their American workers, make additional capital investments, expand their businesses and maximize their contribution to the American economy.

Sincerely,


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