Following amendment, H-2B bill acceptable to racing industry
United States Rep. Andy Harris has offered an amendment to a Federal Department of Labor Appropriations bill that, in its original iteration, could have impacted the labor market for backstretch workers. The amendment was passed by a voice vote in committee consideration on Thursday.
The original bill would have dramatically altered the requirements for employers using the H-2B visa guest worker program, a nonimmigrant visa program used for temporary non-agricultural help when domestic workers are unavailable. Trainers rely heavily on the program to fill positions on the backside.
Harris, a Republican from Maryland, offered an amendment striking three sections from the bill. Specifically, the language in those sections of the bill would have prohibited industries from using the H-2B program if they experienced unemployment in any of the previous 12 months over 10 percent; prohibited construction industries from using the program even in seasonal locations or occupations; increased the baseline for wages to at least 150 percent of the federal or state minimum wage, whichever is higher; required wage compliance with a collaborative bargaining agreement for the specific industry in your area; and banned participation in the program for labor/workforce-related infractions outside of the scope of the program.
“Thank you to all who contacted their representative regarding this issue,” NTRA president and CEO Alex Waldrop said in a release. “We also are grateful to Rep. Harris for offering the amendment to eliminate the language that was so threatening to employers, like horse trainers, who use the H-2B visa program.”
Trainers and horsemen’s groups contend that they cannot find enough U.S. workers to fill backside positions for relatively unskilled labor, such as grooming and hotwalking, leading to support for the visa program. Critics of the program contend that U.S. workers would fill the positions if wages were higher.
The push this year coincides with a post-pandemic effort by many progressive legislators and policy makers to improve conditions and protections for wage earners, bolstered somewhat by conservative efforts to protect domestic workers from the impacts of immigration or foreign-born workers on labor markets.