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H-2B Fly-In Do-or-Die

PLANET H-2B users are gearing up for a last-ditch effort — September 10, 2008, on Capitol Hill — to get the H-2B returning worker exemption passed this year. While no one can ensure how successful we might be, if we do not try, we diminish our chances of getting something done. At the very least, we will be preparing the way for the next organized effort to get H-2B relief. Each time we have a fly-in, our support on the Hill grows and legislators understand that we will not give up until Congress listens to our message about lost American jobs and the negative impact it is having on the economy.

We just witnessed the Olympics and the efforts made by each participant in his or her quest for gold. Please make the effort to go to Washington, D.C., or to the district congressional offices in your state to make your case for our goal — getting the H-2B exemption passed.

Sandy Munley, the executive director of the Ohio Landscape Association (OLA), and 22 OLA members are planning to participate in the fly-in. H-2B users from Massachusetts are organizing with surrounding states to make the trip. The Colorado landscape industry is also preparing for the fly-in by working with other industries that use H-2B workers to make their Hill visits together. The New Jersey group is working hard to increase its number of attendees and hopes to have record attendance.

We hope to see all H-2B users on September 10, 2008. The event begins with an 8:00 a.m. briefing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building (SD), Room 124, 1st & C Streets, NE. Go online now to PLANET’s Legislative Action Center at LandcareNewtork.org to download the form letter to request an appointment for your September 10 visit. Also, let us know if you plan to fly in to D.C. on September 10 so we can better plan. If you have any questions, please call (800) 395-2522 or send an e-mail to Tom Delaney.

9/2/08

 

PLANET now has in its membership database information about your U.S. congressional districts and your two state legislative districts to help us direct your advocacy efforts on all our green industry issues. While this information has been available to you for years from PLANET’s Legislative Action Center, we now have it entered in our database, based on your company address, so that we can contact those we need help from in certain districts. PLANET has also taken the entire Department of Labor’s H-2B data base of more than 14,000 records and had the U.S. congressional districts added for the use of both the H-2B coalitions. This should help many groups locate companies that employ H-2B workers in congressional districts for which we do not have U.S. House co-sponsors for the H-2B bill. These tools will help to more effectively target advocacy efforts on H-2B and other legislative issues of concern to PLANET members.

Make August Count — Senators and members of Congress are in their districts during the month of August. Try to schedule an appointment with them or their staff this month and talk about the urgent need for H-2B reform. When possible, coordinate with other H-2B employers and schedule appointments together or try to see your member at a local town hall meeting, county fair, or other local event. Also, senators and members of Congress pay close attention to their local newspapers. A personal and heartfelt letter to the editor of a local newspaper can be very persuasive to an elected official. Send your own letter or personalize and send the sample letter on PLANET’s Web site under the H-2B toolkit. Please include information specific to your business or the local community when possible.

On September 10, 2008, at 8:00 a.m. (office building and room to be determined) we will once again have an H-2B Fly-in, sponsored by Save Our Small Business and supported by PLANET. This will be a last-ditch effort to get the returning worker exemption renewed this year before Congress adjourns around October 1 for the elections. Many questions still remain unanswered: what are the chances of getting it passed, for how long would it be in effect, and would it include any additional changes to the program? On your behalf, PLANET is continuing to push for a usable H-2B program and is trying to find answers to those questions.

Nevertheless, there is one conclusive answer we can provide. If you do not continue to help push your legislators for action on the H-2B returning worker exemption, it will not happen this year. Therefore, no matter how many Fly-ins you have attended in the past, plan to attend the one on September 10, 2008. And whether or not you can come to Washington, D.C., all H-2B users should make local visit to their legislators during the brake and make contact on September 10 to support this united effort. A form letter to request an appointment for your September 10th visit is available at our Legislative Action Center. Also, let us know if you plan to fly into D.C. on September 10 so we can give you more information. If you have any questions, please call at 800-395-2522 or send an e-mail to Tom Delaney.

8/8/2008

 

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) just announced that the H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal 2009 has been reached, more than two months before the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2008!

According to USCIS, it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 33,000 H-2B cap for the first half of the fiscal year. A USCIS press release states that yesterday, July 29, 2008, was the “final receipt date” for new H-2B worker petitions requesting employment start dates prior to April 1, 2009. Any petitions for H-2B workers with a start date ranging from October 1, 2008, through March 31, 2009, will be rejected. The press release also states that USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions that are subject to the cap and were received on July 29, 2008. USCIS will use this process to select the number of petitions needed to meet the cap. USCIS will reject and return the fee for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected.

USCIS will continue to process petitions for workers who are currently in H-2B status as they do not count towards the congressionally mandated bi-annual H-2B cap. Continued processing will be available for petitions to:

• Extend the stay of a current H-2B worker in the United States;
• Change the terms of employment for current H-2B workers and extend their stay; or
• Allow current H-2B workers to change or add employers and extend their stay.

The closing of the cap so early is devastating for the landscape industry. Many PLANET members have already suffered significant losses this year as a result of not getting H-2B workers for fiscal 2008 or getting workers later in the spring than they were needed. Congress must act now in order to save the landscape industry and other seasonal employers from economic disaster. Companies cannot absorb two consecutive years of financial losses resulting from Congress’s failure to renew the law and provide small businesses with a reliable and legal source of seasonal labor.

Please call your senators and members of Congress through the congressional switchboard at 202-225-3121, and ask them to renew the H-2B returning worker exemption immediately. Ask to speak to the staff person in charge of immigration issues. Tell the staff person what the lack of H-2B workers has meant for your business and your employees this year, and explain the devastating impact of not having H-2B workers in 2009.

7/30/2008

 

According to a July 7, 2008, H-2B cap estimate released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DHS has approved or is in the process of approving more than half of the H-2B petitions it believes it needs to reach the first half of the fiscal 2009 H-2B cap. The fiscal year begins on October 1, 2008. DHS plans to announce that the first half cap will be reached when it receives 40,000 H-2B petitions. As of July 7, DHS has approved some 11,761 petitions and is in the process of reviewing 8,629, putting it a little over the half-way mark (20,390 petitions to be exact) toward the first half cap for fiscal 2009. You can view the latest cap count on the DHS’s Web site.

These numbers are concerning because they suggest the first half cap will be reached even earlier than it was last year. The increasing need for workers and increased enforcement against undocumented workers, has led more and more employers to use the H-2B program, resulting in the cap being reached earlier each year and more landscape contractors being shut out of the program. For fiscal year 2007, the cap for the first half of that fiscal year was reached on November 28, 2006, and the cap for the second half of the fiscal year was reached on March 16, 2007. For fiscal year 2008, the 33,000 first half of the cap was reached on September 27, 2007. The 33,000 for the second half of the fiscal year was reached on January 2, 2008. 

PLANET continues to encourage Congress to pass immediate H-2B relief. We know many of you have suffered severe losses this year as a result of not having a full and stable workforce. We continue to lobby Congress every day for relief and to tell our legislators that the industry cannot sustain similar losses next year. We need action now!

Please lend your voice to support our advocacy efforts by attending PLANET’s Legislative Day on July 22, 2008. While many of you have lobbied Congress on this issue in the past, it is important that you continue to remind lawmakers about how Congress’ continued inaction has hurt your business, your family, your American workers, and the local community.

If you are not attending Legislative Day, please call your member of Congress and senators through the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121 on July 21 and 22, and ask them to support an immediate extension of the H-2B returning worker exemption.

7/14/08

 

Last week, senators Mikulski (D-Md.) and Gregg (R-N.H.) successfully added an H-2B amendment to the Iraq Supplemental Appropriations Bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 23 to 6 for a three-year extension of the H-2B returning worker provision.

The full Senate is expected to consider the measure this week as early as tomorrow, Tuesday, May 20, 2008. During the floor debate, we expect some senators to challenge this provision and other immigration related measures, claiming they are not germane to the war funding bill. Please call your senators today through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and ask them to support seasonal small businesses and oppose any efforts to remove the H-2B provision from the bill.

Your senators will likely be receiving calls from opponents of the H-2B program. They need to continue to hear from employers like you about the importance of the program, so call right now!

 

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced January 3 that the 33,000 H-2B cap for the second half of the fiscal year has been reached. USCIS will not process any petitions for new H-2B workers received after January 2. USCIS will, however, continue to process petitions to extend the stay of H-2B workers currently in the United States or allow them to change employers. Click here to view the USCIS press release.

PLANET is continuing to lobby Congress to immediately reinstate the H-2B returning worker exemption. It is essential that you continue to reach out to your senators and member of Congress in Washington, D.C. and in their local offices. Please send the updated "Save Our Small and Seasonal Business" letter from our Web site. Also take the time to again call your legislators through the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and try to visit with them at their district offices next week before they return to Washington.

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Tom Delaney, PLANET director of government affairs, at (770) 925-7113 or tomdelaney@landcarenetwork.org.

 

Issue: The September 30 deadline for returning workers has passed.
September 30 passed without the returning-worker exemption being extended by Congress. The passage of this date suggests the need for continued pressure on our legislators to quickly pass the "Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act" (S. 988, H.R. 1843). In the past, the exemption was made retroactive because it was not signed into law before the end of the fiscal year. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is prepared to deal with a retroactive returning-worker exemption that would allow our members to hire H-2B workers who have participated in the program during the past three years. On August 2, USCIS urged employers to designate returning workers on their petitions for fiscal 2008, so that it can implement the returning-worker exemption when it is passed by Congress.

Issue: The 33,000 first half of the cap was reached on September 27, 2007. It was reached on November 28 in 2006 and on December 15 in 2005. Now the question is how early can the second cap be reached for the second 33,000 visas? Last year, the cap for the second half of the fiscal year was reached on March 16, even before the April 1 beginning date of the second-half fiscal-time period.

Issue: Congress's goal is to adjourn around Thanksgiving, but the session could extend into December. If legislation is not passed and signed into law between now and the end of the year, we will have to wait until the next session of Congress for relief. Waiting so long would make it extremely difficult for landscape contractors to get their workers in time for the start of the spring season.

Issue: The Sanders Bill was introduced as expected. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently introduced legislation that contains provisions that would make the H-2B program unworkable for employers. It is unlikely that this bill will pass, but it makes it harder to argue that the "Save Our Small and Seasonal Business Act" has no opposition. A group of labor unions are now seen as opposing legislation supported by the H-2B user community and instead are supporting an unreasonable bill of their own.

The labor unions' efforts should only bolster our own efforts to pass the "Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act." We need to continue to push for additional cosponsors of the legislation and ask our supporters to work to get the bill passed and signed into law quickly.

Your help is needed. You are in a unique position; you hold the key to influence Congress. As a resident of your state, you are unique to your senators, and, by living and working in a district, you are unique to a U.S. representative. Use your power and call their Washington, D.C. offices. Ask your employees, suppliers, and customers to call, and ask for senators and representatives to cosponsor the bills. Ask those that are already cosponsors to ask others in their Congressional delegation to cosponsor the legislation and push for its quick passage.

H-2B ADVOCACY CHECKLIST

• Send letters to your senators and member of Congress.
• Call your senators and member of Congress at (202) 225-3121 and tell them why the H-2B returning-worker exemption is essential to your business.
• Visit with your elected officials at local events or in their district offices. Bring other area employers, your employees, and your suppliers.
• Encourage your employees and suppliers to write and call their senators and member of Congress.
• Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper highlighting the importance of the H-2B program to your business and your community.
• Contact other users of the H-2B program in your state (ask PLANET for a list) and ask them to do the same things. This year, it will take extra effort on your part to get cosponsors of the legislation and to get it passed.

All of the materials you need to do everything on this checklist can be found in the PLANET
H-2B toolkit at: http://www.landcarenetwork.org/cms/legislation/h2b.html.

 

This latest PLANET Action Alert is an example of the association’s government affairs program at work for you. PLANET’s Government Affairs Committee members and staff pursue legislative priorities and maintain vigilance over legislative issues that affect green industry professionals nationwide.

The combined efforts of PLANET’s government affairs program and the PLANET Political Action Committee make the association’s legislative initiatives even more successful.

Continued support and funding are needed for the PLANET PAC to help pass legislation needed for green industry professionals, as well as to prevent legislation that would be detrimental to the green industry.

To learn more about PLANET PAC and how you can contribute, please visit PLANET PAC or contact Tom Delaney, PLANET’s Director of Government Affairs at (770) 925-7113 or (800) 395-2522.