H-2B Relief and Hoteliers
WASHINGTON, DC, December 13, 2007. Congress may recess for the holidays as soon as December 14. If it does so without passing the Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act (S. 988 and H.R. 1843), relief for the H-2B program will not be considered until late January, if at all. Since the restrictive and outdated limit of 66,000 workers may be met before then, inaction by Congress will leave hoteliers with spring and summer seasons without access to the workers they require for their peak business periods.
The legislation enjoys strong bipartisan support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. However, it is being blocked from passing by a small number of legislators who would like to manipulate the wide support for the Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act as a way to move other policies they would like. In short, hoteliers, other employers, and full-time employees throughout the country are being sacrificed for political reasons through no fault of their own.
The Save Small Business Act of 2007 will renew policy which had been in effect since 2005 and expired on September 30, 2007. This policy exempted returning H-2B workers from the arbitrary limit of 66,000 workers that are allowed to participate per year. S. 988 introduced by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) would extend the provision for five years and H.R. 1843 introduced by Representative Bart Stupak would (D-MI) would make the provision permanent.
For more information, contact AH&LA Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs Shawn McBurney at 202-289-3123 or title=mailto:smcburney@ahla.com href="mailto:smcburney@ahla.com"> smcburney@ahla.com .
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