[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 106 (Thursday, August 3, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8839-S8840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Cornyn, Ms. 
        Mikulski, Mr. Leahy, and Mr. Lieberman):
  S. 3821. A bill to authorize certain athletes to be admitted 
temporarily into the United States to compete or perform in an athletic 
league, competition, or performance; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Creating 
Opportunities for Minor League Professionals, Entertainers and Teams 
through legal Entry--COMPETE--Act. This bill will level the playing 
field for minor league sports teams that depend on getting the best 
athletic talent. I thank Senators Feinstein, Cornyn, Lieberman, 
Mikulski, and Leahy for joining me in introducing this measure.
  The core problem we address is that under current law, minor league 
players who have to use the H-2B visa category face severe visa 
shortages, while major league players qualify automatically for 
plentiful P-1 visas.
  The H-2B visas are intended for use by industries facing seasonal 
demands for labor, such as the hospitality and logging industries. 
However, this type of visa is also used by many talented, highly 
competitive foreign athletes who are recruited by U.S. teams.
  A chronic H-2B visa shortage over the last few years has posed 
challenges for all industries using the H-2B visa category. In recent 
fiscal years, including 2006, the 66,000 visa cap was met early in the 
year. While we were successful last year in crafting a temporary, 2-
year fix for the H-2B shortage, this fix will expire at the end of the 
current fiscal year.
  However, solving this problem goes beyond fixing the H-2B visa cap. 
Minor league players simply do not belong in the same visa category as 
seasonal workers. There is no rational basis for automatically 
qualifying major league players for P-1 visas, which are granted to 
talented athletes, artists, and entertainers, while denying them to 
minor league players. My amendment would remedy this unfair situation.
  The problem of requiring minor league athletes to use the H-2B visa 
category has posed a particular challenge to those of us in Maine who 
enjoy cheering on our sports teams. The MAINEiacs, a Canadian junior 
hockey league team that plays its games in Lewiston, ME, has faced 
tremendous difficulties obtaining the H-2B visas necessary for the 
majority of its players to come to the United States to play in the 
team's first home games.
  Last year, due to uncertainty surrounding the availability of H-2B 
visas at the end of the fiscal year, the team had to reschedule its 
season home opener and cancel several early season games. This forced 
the team to schedule make-up games for those normally played in 
September. The problems created by the visa situation creates an 
unnecessary hardship for this team, in addition to threatening the 
revenue the team generates for the city of Lewiston and businesses in 
the surrounding area.
  The Portland Sea Dogs, a Double-A baseball team affiliated with the 
Boston Red Sox, is another of the many teams that relies on H-2B visas 
to bring some of its most skilled players to the United States. 
Thousands of fans come each year to see this team, and others like it 
across the country, play one of America's favorite sports. Due to the 
shortage of H-2B visas, however, Major League Baseball reports that, in 
2004 and early 2005, more than 350 talented young, foreign baseball 
players were prevented from coming to the United States to play for 
minor league teams. These teams have been a traditional proving ground 
for athletes hoping to make it to the major leagues and players often 
move from these teams to major league rosters.
  Including these highly skilled athletes in the H-2B visa category 
seems particularly unusual when you consider that major league athletes 
are permitted to use an entirely different nonimmigrant visa category--
the P-1 visa. This visa is available to athletes who are deemed by the 
Citizenship and Immigration Services to perform at an ``internationally 
recognized level of performance.'' Arguably, any foreign athlete whose 
achievements have earned him a contract with an American team would 
meet this definition.
  CIS, however, has interpreted this category to exclude minor and 
amateur league athletes. Instead, the P-1 visa is typically reserved 
for only those athletes who have already been promoted to major league 
sports. Unfortunately, this creates something of a catch-22 for minor 
league athletes--if an H-2B visa shortage means that promising athletes 
are unable to hone their skills and prove themselves in the minor 
leagues, they are far less likely to earn the major league contract 
required for a P-1 visa.
  A simple, commonsense solution would be to expand the P-1 visa 
category to include minor league and certain amateur-level athletes who 
have demonstrated a significant likelihood of graduating to the major 
leagues. Major League Baseball strongly supports the expansion of the 
P-1 visa category to include professional minor league baseball 
players. In correspondence to me, the league has pointed out that 
making P-1 visas available to this group of athletes, teams would be 
able to make player development decisions based on the talent of its 
players, without being constrained by visa quotas. The P-1 category, 
the league believes, is appropriate for minor league players because 
these are the players that major league clubs have selected as some of 
the best baseball prospects in the world.
  There is no question that Americans are passionate about sports. We 
have high expectations for our teams and demand only the best from our 
athletes. By expanding the P-1 visa category, we will make it possible 
for athletes to be selected based on fair competition in talent and 
skill, rather the artificial limits of visa availability. In addition, 
we would reduce some pressure on the H-2B visa category making more of 
those visas available to the industries that need them.
  Mr. President, the inequity of our current policy is clear. Let us 
take this simple step toward a more rational visa policy.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I am introducing today the COMPETE Act 
of 2006, along with Senators Collins and Cornyn.
  This is a bill which amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to 
allow certain minor league athletes and ice skaters to be admitted 
temporarily into the United States to compete or perform in an athletic 
league, competition or performance under the same non-immigrant visa 
category as professional athletes.
  The purpose of this legislation is to level the playing field for 
minor league sports teams that depend on getting the best athletic 
talent, regardless of where in the world that talent is discovered.
  Under current law, minor league players and ice skaters who use the 
H-2B temporary visa category face severe visa shortages, while major 
league players qualify for uncapped P-1 temporary visas.
  This unfair discrepancy in the law needs to be remedied, and the bill 
we are introducing today provides a commonsense solution because it 
allows minor league athletes--whether in baseball, basketball, hockey, 
or ice skating--who will perform competitively in the United States to 
apply for a P-1 temporary visa as opposed to an H-2B visa.
  By way of background, The H-2B temporary visa category allows U.S. 
employers in industries with seasonal or intermittent needs to augment 
their existing labor force with temporary workers or augment their 
labor force when necessary due to a one-time occurrence which 
necessitates a temporary increase in workers.
  Typically, H-2B workers fill labor needs in occupational areas such 
as construction, health care, landscaping, lumber, manufacturing, food 
service and processing, and resort and hospitality services.
  Additionally, and perhaps what people do not know, is that not only 
is the

[[Page S8840]]

H-2B visa category used by loggers, lifeguards, crab pickers, amusement 
park employees, hotel and restaurant employees, but it is also used by 
many talented, highly competitive foreign athletes who are recruited by 
U.S. teams and theatrical ice skating productions.
  A chronic H-28 visa shortage over the last 3 years has posed 
challenges for all industries using the H-2B visa category. In fiscal 
years 2004, 2005, and 2006, the 66,000 visa cap has been reached, 
leaving American teams and the athletes they are recruiting out in the 
cold.
  The COMPETE Act is a solution that not only helps professional 
American teams, but it also relieves the stress on the H-2B visa 
program added by a misclassified group.
  The reality is that minor league athletes do not belong in the same 
visa category as seasonal workers. There is no reason major league 
athletes can't and shouldn't qualify for P-1 visas, which are granted 
to talented athletes, artists, and entertainers. The COMPETE Act would 
remedy this unfair situation.
  What follows are some examples of how classifying minor leaguers and 
ice skaters as H-2B workers harms American sports and how it would be 
better that they be reclassified as other athletes for temporary P-1 
visas.
  Disney on Ice has seven domestic tours per year, bringing 
approximately $400,000 to each of the 150 to 170 U.S. cities in which 
it stops. There are not enough U.S. skaters to fill the roles each 
production requires, thus the organization relies on foreign skaters to 
supplement its cast. As the cap on H-28 visas has been consistently 
reached before the commencement of their training period--(August in 
Florida--and subsequent touring seasons--September through February or 
March--they are often short of ice skaters for their productions.
  Major League Baseball was unable to bring 350 baseball players to the 
United States in the 2004 and 2005 seasons as a result of the H-28 visa 
cap having been met. Promotions of promising young players to the U.S. 
Minor League affiliates could not be made. Due to the unavailability of 
visas, signings of Canadian players drafted in baseball's June first-
year player draft have declined by 80 percent. Furthermore, clubs who 
have already signed talented non-U.S. citizens have been prevented from 
bringing these players to the United States given that the H-2B cap has 
been reached in past years.

  National Hockey League recruits from independent minor league teams, 
such as the American Hockey League, Central Hockey League, and the East 
Coast Hockey League, for foreign players to fill its ranks. Most minor 
hockey league teams' rosters are filled with a majority of foreign 
national professional athletes. This is evident by the number of slots 
that are requested each year by the minor leagues on their temporary 
labor certification applications filed with the Labor Department. For 
instance, the AHL requests approximately 21 player slots out of a 
roster of approximately 26 players; the other leagues are similarly 
situated where the number of requests for slots on temporary labor 
certifications is usually in the ballpark of 80 percent of the roster.
  Further, hockey leagues usually have a few if not more clubs that are 
located in Canada. Of course these players do not need H-2Bs to play 
for a Canadian team, but in the event that they are traded during the 
season to a U.S. team, the acquiring team would have to file an H-2B. 
This frequently presents problems when the numbers have been exhausted 
as the trade becomes dependent upon the availability of a visa number 
and not the professional needs of the team. In addition, players are 
signed throughout the season; this can also prevent teams from signing 
players if the numbers have been exhausted. This is particularly true 
at the end of the season--usually March or April 1--when the numbers 
have been exhausted and the need to sign players for playoffs and 
finals increases.
  National Basketball Association created a developmental league in 
2001. The NBA Development League, or D-League, has functioned both as a 
feeder system for the NBA, whose teams annually call up players to fill 
out NBA rosters beginning in January and, commencing with the 2005-06 
season, as a place where inexperienced NBA Players, within their first 
two seasons, may be assigned to get additional playing time. The D-
League, currently comprised of 12 teams across the country, signs and 
recruits the best basketball athletes from around the world who are not 
playing in the NBA. On average, international players comprise 
approximately 10 percent of active D-League rosters, which currently 
stand at 10 players per team. The H-2B cap has prevented the D-League 
from being able to sign a significant number of qualified international 
players during each of the past two seasons.
  So a simple, commonsense solution would be to expand the P-1 visa 
category to include minor league and certain amateur-level athletes who 
have demonstrated a significant likelihood of graduating to the major 
leagues. This is what the COMPETE Act would do.
  Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the 
National Hockey League, and Feld Entertainment, which owns Disney on 
Ice, all support the expansion of the P-1 visa category to include 
minor league players and ice skaters.
  Americans love their sports teams and want to see the highest caliber 
athletes competing or performing. By expanding the P-1 visa category, 
we will make it possible for athletes to be selected based on talent 
and skill rather than visa availability.
  In addition, we would reduce some pressure on the H-28 visa category 
making more of those visas available to the industries that need them.
  I am pleased to be joined by Senators Collins and Cornyn, as well as 
Mikulski, Leahy, and Lieberman, in introducing the COMPETE Act of 2006.
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