Recently, the U.S. House and Senate passed and sent to the President legislative language that temporarily fixes the H-2B visa cap. The fix, passed as part of the Defense Authorization Bill, allows workers who entered the United States with an H-2B visa during fiscal years 2004, 2005 or 2006 to enter the United States under an H-2B visa and not count against the 66,000 per year cap.
“This is a great win for the green industry,” said John Farner, director of legislative relations for the American Nursery and Landscape Association. “Our community depends on a temporary worker program that meets the economic needs of our employers; this fix affords our industry the non-agricultural seasonal workers we need to keep our businesses running.”
Senator John Warner (R-VA) added the 2-year temporary fix legislative language to the Defense Authorization Bill; it passed the Senate floor earlier this session. The bill was then stymied by differences between House and Senate leadership. When an agreement was reached on a final bill, Senator Warner negotiated a 1-year temporary fix to the program with Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
“Senator Warner’s unwavering commitment to keeping H-2B language in the authorization bill is testament to the fact we have strong champions on Capitol Hill,” continued Farner. “We are looking forward to working with Senator Warner, Senator Mikulski (D-MD) and our House champions in negotiating a permanent fix in 2007.”
