Urgent request from the H-2B Workforce Coalition

Requested Action:
Please call your Representative and ask him or her to sign onto the H-2B letter that is currently being circulated by Reps. Bergman (R-MI) and Keating (D-MA). You can reach your Representative through the Capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121. Once connected to your lawmaker’s office, ask to speak to the staff person who deals with H-2B visa issues. Explain to the staff person the importance of H-2B cap relief to your business and ask him or her to encourage your Representative to sign the Bergman-Keating letter. Colorado representatives' contact information can also be found on this document.

Background:
Both the House and Senate are on recess until November 13. When Congress returns for a lame-duck session it will focus on wrapping up the outstanding fiscal 2019 federal spending bills, including a funding measure for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Department is currently funded by a continuing resolution through December 7.

The fiscal 2019 DHS appropriations bill provides the only real opportunity to pass H-2B cap relief before the end of the calendar year and we need your help to ensure that meaningful H-2B cap relief is included in the final measure.

Reps. Bergman (R-MI) and Keating (D-MA) are circulating the attached letter to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Minority Leader Pelosi (D-CA) urging them to include the H-2B cap relief in the fiscal 2019 House Appropriations Committee-passed DHS appropriations bill in a final spending bill that will be negotiated with the Senate during the lame-duck session. Please call your representative today and ask him or her to sign this important letter.

As you know, the DHS funding bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee in July would exempt returning workers from the annual H-2B visa cap, reallocate the capped 66,000 visas on a quarterly basis to ensure that employers with late seasons are not shut out of the program and allow for visas to be appropriated on a proportional basis to ensure that all qualifying employers receive at least a percentage of needed H-2B workers. The Berman-Keating letter urges House leaders to fight to retain that language in a final spending bill.

Your H-2B Workforce Coalition Co-Chairs,

Laurie Flanagan, representing AmericanHort and the National Association of Landscape Professionals
Brian Crawford, American Hotel and Lodging Association
Gregg Hartley, representing the Outdoor Amusement Business Association