Save Small Business Offers Fly-In Talking Points

Attendees are encouraged to highlight the importance of H-2B to small businesses, noting that it will not interfere with comprehensive immigration reform.

Published March 07, 2006

Fla 

Grassroots H-2B organization Save Small Business is encouraging H-2B employers from all industries to make their way to Washington, D.C. next week for the recently announced H-2B Fly-In. The March 15 Fly-In was announced last week in an effort to get as many people as possible to bring the issue to their Congress Members’ offices. Legislation proposing a three-year extension to last year’s Save our Small & Seasonal Businesses Act has been introduced by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and will be voted on soon. Save Small Business, along with green industry organizations like the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), are hoping to encourage Senators and Representatives to co-sponsor and vote in favor of the bill. The legislation is HR bill 4740 and S 2284.

BILL DETAILS: HR 4740, S 2284

    If passed by Congress, HR 4740 and S 2284 would extend these provisions in the Save our Small & Seasonal Businesses Act of 2005:

  • Exempt workers who have participated in the H-2B program for any of the past 3 fiscal years from the 66,000 cap and direct the Department of Homeland Security to immediately resume the processing of petitions for these workers. This provision would take effect immediately and expire on Oct. 1, 2006.
  • Allows the Department of Homeland Security to impose a “fraud prevention and detection” fee of $150 for each petition filed. This section would not take effect until Oct. 1, 2005.
  • Allows the Department of Homeland Security to impose a fine of up to $10,000 per violation and prohibit the use of the H-2B program for one to five years for a “willful misrepresentation of a material fact” in a petition. This section would not take effect until Oct. 1, 2005.
  • Specifies that only 33,000 of the 66,000 workers subject to the cap can be used during the first six months of the fiscal year. This provision would be a permanent change to the program.
  • Requires the Department of Homeland Security to notify Congress on a quarterly basis of the number of visas issued and the number of visas that were expired or revoked. This reporting must be in place by March 1, 2006.
  • Requires the Department of Homeland Security to report annually to Congress, beginning in fiscal 2007, on the number of visas issued and expired and on the previous fiscal year’s H-2B workers’ countries of origin, occupations and wages.

“We need every H-2B employer from all industries in Washington on March 15 meeting with their Senators and Representatives,” says Hank Lavery of Save Small Business. “Please call your Member of Congress and U.S. Senators to set up an appointment on March 15."

Save Small Business also offers the following list of talking points that attendees may use during the Fly-In to educate their lawmakers:

  • The "Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2006" (SOS, H.R.4740 and S.2284) will extend the SOS Act through FY2009.
  • The bill strikes a balance by temporarily extending the solution to the H-2B crisis while at the same time adding to America's security needs and protecting U.S. workers from unfair competition. It retroactively reduces from the H-2B cap repeat temporary seasonal workers who held H-2B status any time in the past three years. Since many employers bring their H-2B temporary workforce back each year, this will help keep businesses from a total meltdown this year. The bill also sets stiff penalties for employers who flaunt the rules.
  • As Congress debates various comprehensive immigration and border security bills, the SOS Bill does nothing to adversely affect potential solutions that Congress may reach. This Bill is aimed solely at ensuring that small employers can continue to participate in the only legal program they can access to meet their employment needs when there is a shortage of U.S. workers.
  • America's small and seasonal businesses need each Representative and Senator to co-sponsor H.R.4740/S. 2284 - with sufficient co-sponsors Congress will put the bill on the House and Senate calendars for consideration.

Save Small Business asserts that non-agricultural employers that use seasonal foreign labor to supplement their workforces have no alternative but to go through the H-2B visa program, calling it a “complex and convoluted process.” “No U.S. employer would go through the great expense and time commitment involved in the H-2B visa process if there were U.S. workers available to meet seasonal hiring needs,” Lavery says.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

    Will you be attending the H-2B Fly-In this year? Let us know by posting your thoughts on the Lawn & Landscape Message Board where other users are already talking about the trip. Or, e-mail lspiers@gie.net to share how the H-2B issue affects your company.

The Save Our Small & Seasonal Businesses legislation currently before Congress uses the same language as the Save Our Small & Seasonal Businesses Act of 2005, signed into law in May 2005. The 2005 act expires at the end of September 2006; new legislation aims to extend the changes through 2009.

To contact your Senators and Representatives, look for their contact information on www.senate.gov and www.house.gov.

No more results found.
No more results found.