Our biggest challenge RIGHT now is attempting to get the House Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations subcommittee to put the Returning Worker Exemption language in the FY 2017 base bill just like they did last year.
The Chairman of that committee and some other Republicans have been unnerved by the attacks from NumbersUSA on the right and how that has echoed back in their districts. The Congress is out on break this week but the following week we expect the Homeland subcommittee to meet on Tuesday/Wednesday and mark up their bill. (The full committee could then take it up as soon as the following week.) The clock is ticking.
If you know one of the following Members, or you know someone who does actually know them or a senior member of their staff, we need you to call them right away and ask that they support retaining our Returning Worker Exemption. This is a high level grassroots effort meaning that we need landscape professionals with existing relationships to call their representative or key staff to make a personal ask rather than cold calling low level staff.
The subcommittee is as follows:
Republicans
- John Carter, Texas, Chairman
- John Culberson, Texas
- Rodney Frelinghuysen, New Jersey, Vice Chair
- Chuck Fleischmann, Tennessee
- Andy Harris, Maryland
- Chris Stewart, Utah
- David Young, Iowa
Democrats
- Lucille Roybal-Allard, California, Ranking Member
- David Price, North Carolina
- Henry Cuellar, Texas
- Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Language for Returning Worker:
Section 214(g)(9)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)(9)(A)) is amended by striking ‘‘2013, 2014, or 2015 shall not again be counted toward such limitation during fiscal year 2016.’’ And inserting ‘‘2014, 2015, or 2016 shall not again be counted toward such limitation during fiscal year 2017.’’.
Effective Date-
(1) IN GENERAL- The amendment in subsection (a) shall take effect as if enacted on October 1, 2016, and shall expire on October 1, 2017.
(2) IMPLEMENTATION- Not later than 14 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall begin accepting and processing petitions filed on behalf of aliens described in section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, in a manner consistent with this section and the amendments made by this section. Notwithstanding section 214(g)(9)(B) of such Act, as added by subsection (a), the Secretary of Homeland Security shall allocate additional numbers for fiscal year 2017 based on statistical estimates and projections derived from Department of State data.
Other members of the H-2B Workforce Coalition are sending a similar message to their members, and we also have other Members of Congress (even Senators) contacting these folks too.
Our goal is to keep the pressure level high while Congress is on break. Please report any progress you make to Paul Mendelsohn. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
