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It’s January and summer may seem far away, but the
businesses that comprise Maine’s hospitality
industry are already preparing for the tourist
season. In Maine, 87,000 jobs are directly tied to
the success of tourism, which generates $13.9
billion for Maine’s economy and $556 million in
state tax revenue. Unfortunately, this vital sector
of our economy is facing a looming crisis long
before the tourist season begins: it may not be able
to secure enough employees if Congress does not
address the shortage of H-2B visas for seasonal
workers who enter the U.S. each year.
A cap on the number of H-2B visa workers allowed
to enter the country each year was set at 66,000 per
fiscal year in 1990, but the cap was not enforced at
first. Each year, about 3,000 seasonal, foreign
workers who hold an H-2B visa traveled to Maine for
temporary employment. Due largely to an increased
focus on security after September 11, 2001, the cap
has only been enforced for the last two years. The
cap hurts Maine’s businesses disproportionately in
relation to other states because Maine’s tourist
season begins so late in the fiscal year. On January
4 of this year, the cap on the supply of H-2B visas
was reached, and now Maine’s inns and restaurants
are looking at an impending labor shortage that
endangers the summer business they depend on. Last
year, the cap was reached in March - clearly this
problem is growing worse and will not improve unless
Congress acts.
It is crucial to note that, as a safeguard for
Maine workers, businesses that request H-2B seasonal
workers must undergo a lengthy process – through the
Maine Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Labor,
and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – that
certifies employers have made repeated and
unsuccessful attempts to recruit local Mainers
first. Federal regulations require that these
businesses present evidence that qualified workers
in the United States are not available. According to
the Maine Department of Labor, all such job
opportunities are posted for at least ten days at
more than twenty career centers statewide, and the
U.S. Department of Labor official instructions
specifically mandate that any businesses seeking
H-2B workers must prove they have advertised these
openings for at least three consecutive days in a
local newspaper.
The present first-come, first serve system is
broken and unfair, and the cap of 66,000 H-2B visas
per fiscal year is unrealistically low. To address
the summer labor shortage last year, I cosponsored
two different pieces of legislation that would have
raised the H-2B cap to 106,000 and would have
provided that any seasonal worker who has already
been an H-2B visa holder during any one of the past
two fiscal years would not be counted toward the
upcoming annual cap. Either one of these measures
would go a long way toward addressing the H-2B
crisis.
We cannot forget that Maine’s permanent,
year-round local tourist jobs and the small business
owners who create those jobs depend on a successful
summer season for their livelihood. For Maine’s
seasonally dependent summer economy, the
implications of not increasing the H-2B visa cap on
these visas or reworking how they are allocated is
potentially disastrous. I am committed to working
with my colleagues to pass similar legislation, and
I will continue to do all I can to bring relief to
employers in Maine and across the nation. |
