WASHINGTON – Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., and Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, co-sponsored an amendment to the Labor-H Appropriations Bill to prohibit any Department of Labor funds being used to enforce new DOL H2B Visa Immigration Wage Methodology rules that are set to take effect on October 1, 2011. The new rules were originally intended to take effect next year.

As a result of this action, the Department of Labor has agreed to delay implementing the new rules for 60 days until November 30, 2011. The notice for the 60-day delay will appear in the federal register next week.

Senator Landrieu commented on these developments in the following statement.

“The H2B visa program is predominately used by small businesses in the landscaping, hotel, construction, amusement and forestry industries and these new rules could potentially increase wages in some industries by eighty percent,” Senator Landrieu said. “I am pleased to see my colleagues and the Department of Labor taking action to prevent the unintended consequences these rules – as currently written – could have on America’s entrepreneurs. Small businesses are struggling to stay afloat and changes to the H2B program should be carefully crafted to recognize the impact they could have on small businesses.”

BACKGROUND:

Under the H-2B Temporary Visa program, U.S. employers can bring in up to 66,000 nonagricultural foreign workers each year for temporary jobs, after they have shown that American workers are not available and that Americans’ wages will not be adversely affected. Louisiana employers, more specifically, small businesses in the seafood processing, forestry and sugar cane industries, extensively participate in the program.