Congress must address federal spending bills for the remainder of fiscal year 2017 by April 28 in order to avoid a government shutdown. Congress needs to hear a steady drumbeat from H-2B users across the country if we are going to be successful in reinstating the returning worker exemption through a year-end spending bill. Your help is crucial in this endeavor.
This week NALP is asking you to do the following:
Contact your representative and ask him or her to sign on to the letter that Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) is currently circulating. It will be sent to House leaders and urges them to include an extension of the returning worker exemption in any 2017 fiscal measures that come before the House. This Thursday is the deadline to sign on to the letter. NALP has created a specific action alert center so that you can easy contact your representative to urge support of the Harris letter. Click here to contact your representative.
Contact your two senators and ask them to co-sponsor the Save our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act, S. 792, that was introduced last week by Senators Tillis (R-NC), King (I-ME), Thune (R-SD), Collins (R-ME), Rounds (R-SD), Cornyn (R-TX), Murkowski (R-AK), Blunt (R-MO) and Warner (D-VA). NALP has also created a specific action center related to the Tillis bill. To take action urging your senators to support of S.792, click here.
When taking action, please make sure you finish both links. In most future advocacy efforts the NALP will be able to include just a single link that allows you to contact all of your Congressional representatives. However, in this instance, the messages are unique to the specific chamber and so two separate links are needed.
If you wish to call your representative and senators directly, you can reach them through the Capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121.
You can also tweet at your elected officials, using the hashtag #SaveH2B, and encourage them to pass H-2B cap relief immediately. You can also thank your Senators if they are co-sponsors of S. 792 or encourage them to co-sponsor this bill if they have not yet done so.
Finally, save the date and plan to attend the H-2B Workforce Coalition fly-in on April 26. Details are in the works, but if you would like to attend please contact Paul Mendelsohn so you are scheduled to meet with your members of Congress and grouped with other participants from your state.