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Wittman Endorses Easier H-2B Visa Rules
By Greg L | 26 May 2008 | National Politics, US Congress | 15 Comments
“I’m Surrounded By Idiots” has picked up on a press release by Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA 1st) lauding the Department of Labor for proposing new rules to govern H-2B visas, which are supposed to used to provide temporary unskilled foreign labor for agribusiness, primarily. I’m rather surprised that Congressman Whittman would weigh in positively on this, as this has all the hallmarks of an attempt by big business to incrementally loosen visa requirements to bring increasing amounts of cheap foreign labor into the country to compete with American workers during a period of economic uncertainty. The details of this proposed change give even more reason to step back, since the outcome of this potential rule change could have dramatic negative impacts on his district.
The proposed rules extend the period for an H-2B visa from ten months (this is a seasonal program, remember?) to THREE YEARS, renewed annually without conditions. In addition, instead of the federal government performing an economic justificiation to show that in a market area that there aren’t supposedly enough domestic workers to fill these positions, the employer will simply certify that they can’t find enough workers at the wage rates they want to pay. Having seen the tremendous fraud and abuse under this scheme with H-1B visas, complete with seminars by attorneys who tell employers how to evade the requirements of the law, this is just begging for abuse. Next up will undoubtably be a congressional effort to raise the number of H-2B visas that can be issued annually.
While business has argued that they can’t get enough workers to do things like harvest crops, work in shipyards and mow lawns, the reality here is that they can’t find domestic workers to fill these jobs at the wage rates they’re willing to pay. To solve the labor shortage in these businesses, they can either increase the supply of labor with foreign workers or pay higher wages, and it’s pretty clear that anything which would improve conditions for American workers but increase labor costs isn’t what big business is interested in. What Congressman Wittman has endorsed here is the perpetuation of lower wages for low-skilled American workers which is terribly unlike him, and a position that may well impose significant political costs for him in the future.
Citizens have an opportunity to weigh in on these proposed rules by emailing H2Bcomments@dol.gov, referencing RIN 1205-AB36 in the subject line of the email. The public comment period is open until July 7th. Since it’s doubtful that Congress would ever get around to fixing this and the President is doubtlessly in favor of bringing in more foreign workers, the only way to head this off is for the citizens to start banging on the Department of Labor to stop trying to re-write federal rules without any degree of oversight.
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15 Comments
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So, I take it that this guy is another “Bush” Republican, huh? I guess next he’ll be supporting another round of amnesty.
H.R. 1843 would increase the number of H-2B visa by 300% according to NumbersUSA.
Wittman supports H.R. 1843 so much, that not only is he one of the 151 co-sponsors, but he is also one of only 31 people that have signed the discharge petition to get the bill out of committee.
http://www.numbersusa.com/interests/legislation_proposed110.html
The question is, who is buttering Wittman’s bread? Sounds like he’s being “bribed”. Vote him out.
Yes you sure are supporting free enterprise. Let’s just artificially inflate wages rather than allow Latinos to enter the country. While we’re at it let’s raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Well, at least an independent isn’t dictating policy.
So, from this I can reasonably conclude you are anti-illegal immigration but simply anti-immigrant.
Anonymous–you have a point, I may be what you call “anti-immigrant”.
I call it smart immigration. WE decide who is allowed to immigrate here based on what skills they have to offer and whether or not they will enhance our country or be a drain on our society.
The massive population transfer of the lowest strata of society from Mexico and Central America to the US has not been good for us. No country, no matter how great and generous, can be expected to absorb such a large number of illiterate, uneducated and possibly uneducable people.
The illegal alien is the most inefficient economic unit and becomes a parasite on the larger society.
Anonymous–reread your post. It really is nonsensical.
Whittman just lost my vote. The more the current field of RINO’s open their mouths, the more they disgust me. It is going to be hard going to the polls and not selecting one republican, but I will go and submit an empty ballot.
Wittman gets tons of money from agricultural and fishery/seafood businesses. Both of which he stated would be helped by more H-2B visas.
Anonymous said on 27 May 2008 at 12:00 pm:
“Yes you sure are supporting free enterprise. Let’s just artificially inflate wages rather than allow Latinos to enter the country.”
You’re not very up on economics, are you Anonymous? Inflation of both wages and prices is created by a number of factors, INCLUDING THE SINKING DOLLAR. When a dollar has less value, it’s supposed to be able to buy less, including labor. What we have going on here is the artificial DEFLATION of wages by the presence of millions upon millions of illegal workers in our country. Why do you think Bush is such a big fan of amnesty? It’s a good way to hide the effects of an ever burgeoning debt from the average citizen (kind of like building taxes into products, like gas, hides the actual cost of the product…it’s called “value added tax”).
What people better start to realize is that, if the artificial stop-gap measures continue long enough, the bubble will burst (like the real estate bubble, and the ecommerce bubble before that) and we could be facing an economic disaster similar to that which occurred in Germany prior to WWII…when it was cheaper to burn money for fuel than it was to burn wood.
Okay, what’s the problem with regulating LEGAL immigration? I though you and your readers were perfectly happy to have legal immigrants in the country. This is a way to do it fairly and legally.
Given that we are already standing on the abyss, Sara, it would seem prudent to resolve the issue of the enormous numbers of ILLEGAL labor already present in our country before we consider any reforms to immigration. We can’t seem to enforce the laws we already have…don’t you think THAT would be the first step before we change them?
Sara: The way we regulate immigration doesn’t have to be fair. Life isn’t fair. We need to regulate immigration the way the CITIZENS want, not the way Juan Hernandez or Calderon want. It’s not up to the Mexicans or Central Americans. They may not like our decisions so they need to focus on their own countries and stop feeding off the US.
I’m a citizen, and as far as I can tell, you lot are a small, but vocal minority. Most Americans do not reflect the anti-immigrant racism that is promoted on this site. You all need to get out of Manassas more often–I think Greg got a wake-up call last week at the Immigration Forum at GMU–outside the bubble he (and you all) don’t have much of an audience, or support.
Sara:28 May @ 9:41 pm
“small but vocal minority”???
Thsi “small but vocal minority” torpedoed the first amnesty bill put forth by the Bush administration coupled with McCain and hid cohorts in congress. I personnaly am against any further immigration until we get our house on order. I could care less whether I am called racist, a bigot or what ever. If that makes the bleeding hearts feel good so be it.
He don’t get out much, do he? Does anyone else hear banjo music playing?