E-Verify to Be Taken Up in House Committee This Week

Nov 9

Written by:
11/9/2011

ANLA

For Immediate Release September 14, 2011

For additional information contact:
Jonathan Bardzik, Director of Marketing and Industry Relations
202-789-2900

E-Verify to Be Taken Up

in House Committee This Week

Washington, D.C.— On September 15, the House Judiciary Committee will take up and consider Chairman Lamar Smith’s Legal Workforce Act legislation (H.R.2164) mandating that all U.S. employers use the E-Verify system within three years. E-Verify is the electronic system for verifying whether a prospective hire is legally authorized to work in the U.S. It is currently voluntary.

The American Nursery & Landscape Association, along with partner seasonal and agricultural employer organizations, have sounded the alarm over the impact of E-Verify without labor supply solutions for U.S. agriculture and seasonal employers. Government and private estimates suggest that upwards of 75 percent of hired farm workers lack proper work authorization, and would be screened out by E-Verify, leading to a national crisis much like that experienced in the state of Georgia when a state-level immigration bill was passed there earlier this year. Georgia growers have already estimated labor shortages as high as 30 to 50 percent, and crop losses that could exceed $300 million in 2011 alone.

ANLA is particularly concerned that the H-2A and H-2B “safety net” programs intended to give agricultural and seasonal employers the tools to ensure a legal workforce have been shredded by regulatory abuse at the hands of a hostile US Department of Labor. In the past year, for example, H-2A employer appeals of arbitrary DOL application denials have risen from a long-term average of 18 per year, to 442 in 2010 alone.

The Judiciary Committee also plans to separately consider Chairman Smith’s “American Specialty Agriculture Act,” H.R. 2847, which would attempt to improve the existing H-2A program. While the bill has some attractive features, ANLA and the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform (ACIR) believe that the H-2A structure is fundamentally flawed, and do not feel that H.R.2847 would create a program capable of either regularizing the status of, or replacing the unauthorized workforce.

Representative Dan Lungren (R-CA) is preparing to introduce an alternative program, the Legal Agricultural Workforce Act, which would establish a new, more market-oriented and flexible program. It is not clear whether Lungren will offer an amendment in the upcoming Judiciary Committee debate, or if and when E-Verify comes to the House floor. ANLA and ACIR believe that the Lungren approach offers a better framework for a 21^st Century agricultural worker program.

This is a deadly serious legislative battle that could shape the green industry’s labor and legal workforce options for years to come. Please let your Member of the House of Representatives know of your support for a solution that is more flexible and market-oriented, and less bureaucratic, than the current H-2A program. Click here to customize and send your message to Congress http://www.capwiz.com/anla/issues/alert/?alertid=51416531.

For more information contact Craig Regelbrugge at cregelbrugge@anla.org.

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ANLA, a Washington, DC-based trade association, represents green industry business professionals seeking market leadership through advocacy with our nation’s government, a community of industry innovators and experts, and unique, profitability-focused programming, products and services. Through the Lighthouse Program, a partnership with green industry state and regional associations, ANLA represents more than 22,000 businesses before Congress and to the White House.

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Recent News for the Louisiana Irrigation Association

H-2B Alert Update

LandcareNetwork.org

July 1, 2011

Federal court rules new H-2B Wage Rule, effective October 1, 2011

On June 15, 2011, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a ruling that invalidated the January 1, 2012, effective date of the Wage Rule and ordered the Department of Labor (DOL) to announce a new effective date for the rule within 45 days from June 15. The basis for the court’s ruling was twofold: (1) that the almost one-year delay in the effective date was not a “logical outgrowth” of the proposed rule, and therefore was in violation; and (2) that the DOL was wrong in considering hardship to employers when deciding to delay the effective date.

The DOL proposes that the Wage Rule take effect 60 days from the date of publication of a final rule resulting from this rulemaking. It anticipates the date of publication of the final rule to be on or about August 1, 2011; thus, the effective date of the Wage Rule would be on or about October 1, 2011. The Wage Rule will be effective for wages paid to H-2B workers and U.S. workers recruited in connection with an H-2B labor certification for all work performed on or after the new effective date. A 60-day delayed effective date also would provide the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) within the DOL with the time it needs to implement the wage rule, as the OFLC must issue new prevailing wages for approved work performed on or after the new effective date.

In order to accomplish this, the OFLC must identify all certified H-2B applications that contain dates of work to be performed on and after the new effective date of the Wage Rule. This universe of certifications must then be issued new prevailing wage determinations in accordance with the Wage Rule’s methodology. This is a labor-intensive activity, as the OFLC will have to determine and issue the new determinations before the new effective date proposed in this rulemaking for each of these employers. OFLC has determined the universe of applications to be large, and therefore will require the 60-day delayed effective date in order to complete this task.

PLANET recently sent more than 3,500 postcards to all users of the H-2B program, asking them to contact their members of Congress through the PLANET Web site. We were very disappointed with the response. The simple fact is that if you do not contact your representative and senators, they will not do anything to help.

PLANET continues to work with other associations representing industries that rely on the program. However, our industry is the biggest user of the program and must therefore take the major part of the grassroots action. If PLANET members do not use PLANET’s Legislative Action Center to send letters to the Hill, this program may be rendered completely useless for the foreseeable future. We also encourage you to attend Legislative Day on the Hill and go with other members of your state to the Hill with request for help.

Tom Delaney
Director of Government Affairs
Professional Landcare Network (PLANET)
(800) 395-2522

Professional Landcare Network (PLANET)
950 Herndon Parkway, Suite 450
Herndon, VA 20170
(800) 395-2522 . Fax (703) 736-9668 . LandcareNetwork.org
The association of members who create and maintain the QUALITY OF LIFE in communities across America.