Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (Senate - July 26, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

AMENDMENT NO. 2498 TO AMENDMENT NO. 2383

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I call up the Sanders-Feingold amendment No. 2498 and ask for its immediate consideration.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.

The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Vermont [Mr. Sanders], for himself and Mr. Feingold, proposes an amendment numbered 2498 to amendment No. 2383.

The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To prohibit funds made available in this Act from being used to implement a rule or regulation related to certain petitions for aliens to perform temporary labor in the United States)

On page 69, after line 24, add the following:

Sec. 536. Prohibition on Use Funds for Rulemaking Related to Petitions for Aliens.

None of the funds made available in this Act may be used by the Secretary of Homeland Security or any delegate of the Secretary to issue any rule or regulation which implements the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking related to Petitions for Aliens To Perform Temporary Nonagricultural Services or Labor (H-2B) set out beginning on 70 Federal Register 3984 (January 27, 2005).

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let me begin by commending Chairman Byrd and Ranking Member Cochran for their outstanding leadership on this excellent piece of legislation. The fiscal year 2008 Homeland Security appropriations bill will make this country safer, and I thank Chairman Byrd and Senator Cochran for their hard work in crafting this bill.

The amendment I am offering now is, in fact, a very simple amendment. As you know, there is strong concern all over this country about the increase in poverty and the decline of the middle class. It seems to me--at a time when we are hemorrhaging millions of good-paying jobs; at a time when Americans are losing, by the millions, their health insurance, when moms cannot afford affordable childcare, people are losing their pensions--we have to do everything we can to make sure the policies we implement do not hurt low- and moderate-income families and make a bad situation even worse.

On the contrary, this Congress has to do everything we can to make sure we lift up wages--we lift up working conditions--and not push them down. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor have proposed regulations that, if implemented, could have a significant negative impact in terms of lowering wages and working conditions for American workers.

Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor have proposed regulations that would eliminate the labor certification process and replace it with a labor attestation process. State workforce agencies and the Department of Labor as a whole would no longer be involved in certifying that employers applying for H-2B visas are not displacing American workers or adversely affecting the wages or working conditions of U.S. workers.

The proposed regulations, for the most part, would only require employers to attest--to attest--to the Department of Homeland Security that they are following the law. All they have to do is say: I am following the law. Trust us. In other words, the Federal Government would take employers at their word that they are complying with the law, with little, if any, oversight.

Among other things, the proposed regulations fail to ensure H-2B visa work is temporary in nature. H-2B work is supposed to be temporary. The proposed regulations fail to ensure that no qualified American worker is available for H-2B positions. In other words, the employer is supposed to go out and make sure there are not American workers available for that position.

The proposed regulations fail to require that H-2B employers do not adversely affect U.S. wages and working conditions, all of which are required by current law. In other words, the law says an employer cannot pay low wages which have the impact of lowering wages for all workers in that area.

Now, let me very briefly read to my colleagues what the AFL-CIO has written about these regulations:

The proposed regulations would significantly weaken the ability of the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security to meet the statutory requirements of the H-2B program as established by Congress and would establish a new regulatory system that would be arbitrary and capricious. Current administrative procedures have so far failed to adequately protect H-2B workers, domestic workers, and the domestic labor market. The proposed regulations, rather than addressing and remedying these fundamental flaws in current procedures, would only further undermine the administration's ability to ensure the H-2B program operates in full compliance with the law and in a rational manner. The proposed regulations are not only unacceptable to the AFL-CIO and to worker and immigrant advocates as a matter of public policy--if enacted, they would also constitute an unjustified and unauthorized derogation from the administration's responsibilities under the law.

In addition, according to a recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center entitled ``Close to Slavery,'' H-2B workers are routinely cheated out of wages; forced to mortgage their futures to obtain low wage, temporary jobs; held virtually captive by employers or labor brokers who seize their documents; forced to live in squalid conditions; and denied medical benefits for on-the-job injuries.

The amendment I am offering today would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from using any of the funds in this act to implement these proposed regulations.

Given the serious abuses of the H-2B program by many employers documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the strong opposition of working people from all over this country, I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this amendment. We have a bad situation now. Let us not make it worse.

Simply put, we must make sure that labor protections for American workers and for foreign workers who are temporarily working in our country--we must make sure these regulations are strengthened, not weakened. Over the long term, I will be introducing legislation to accomplish that goal. But in the interim, we must not take a major step backwards in terms of protecting both U.S. workers and guest workers from unscrupulous employers. That is what this amendment is all about, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this amendment.

With that, I ask for the yeas and nays.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

AMENDMENT NO. 2498

Mrs. MURRAY. What is the pending amendment?

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pending business before the Senate under the unanimous consent agreement is the Sanders amendment, on which there are 2 minutes equally divided.

Who yields time? The Senator from Vermont is recognized.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, what the H-2B program provides is that guest workers may come into this country on a temporary basis if no qualified U.S. worker is available for that position and that the wages paid to H-2B employees do not adversely impact U.S. wages and working conditions. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor have proposed regulations that would eliminate the labor certification process and move toward a process which has virtually no enforcement mechanisms and which simply takes the employer's word as to whether they are obeying these regulations. In other words: Trust us, we are doing the right thing.

This is absurd. This amendment would simply prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from using any of the funds in this act to implement these proposed regulations. This amendment is supported by Senator Feingold as well.

Source