[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8661-S8662]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CONTINUING FAILURE TO ADDRESS H-2B VISA CRISIS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I came to this floor more than 2 months ago 
to decry the Senate's failure to respond to a crisis, caused by Federal 
policy, that has disrupted the operations of small and large businesses 
throughout the United States. This crisis has continued unabated since 
then, but the requests for help from these businesses have continued to 
fall on deaf ears.
  In March, the Department of Homeland Security announced that for the 
first time ever, the annual cap for H-2B visas had been met. These 
visas are used by a wide range of industries throughout the Nation to 
fill temporary labor needs. In my home State of Vermont, they are used 
primarily by the tourist industry.
  The Department of Defense appropriations conference report, before us 
today, includes a very narrow solution to this problem, benefiting a 
single industry that uses H-2B visas. The conference report exempts 
aliens seeking jobs in the ``fish roe'' industry from counting against 
the H-2B cap. The provision does nothing to help the broad categories 
of employers who use H-2B visas.
  Across the country, businesses in a wide range of industries have 
been scrambling this summer, having been forced to discard business 
plans that relied on the foreign employees who had always before been 
available to them. For years, these employers had applied in the spring 
for the employees they needed for the summer, filling positions for 
which they were unable to find American workers. The cap had never been 
reached, and they had no reason to believe this year would be 
different. I know that the March announcement came as a shock to many 
employers in my State, and dozens of them contacted my office to see 
what could be done. This setback fell equally hard on employers in 
other States.
  In response to these requests, I joined with a substantial bipartisan 
coalition in introducing S. 2252, the Save Summer Act of 2004. Senator 
Kennedy is the lead sponsor of the bill, which has 18 cosponsors, 
including 8 Republicans.

[[Page S8662]]

Our bill would add 40,000 visas for the current fiscal year, providing 
relief to those summer-oriented businesses that had never even had the 
opportunity to apply for visas. Unfortunately, the Republican 
leadership has refused to move this bipartisan bill. The leadership has 
refused even to move a bill that Senator Hatch introduced, and which 
was supported only by Republicans. Instead, a tiny minority of Senators 
has been given a veto over doing anything to address this problem for 
the current fiscal year or years to come.
  The Senate must act in a comprehensive way to solve this problem. I 
urge the majority leader to bring H-2B legislation to the floor as soon 
as possible, so we can assure that the summer of 2005 will not be a 
replay of the summer of 2004.

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