In directing staffers at the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security to draft a rule increasing the number of guest-worker visas, senior political officials specifically highlighted businesses in Maine and Alaska, home to senators who hold crucial health care votes. By Michael Grabell and Justin Elliott – ProPublica, June 27, 2017
For months, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have been pushing the Trump administration to expand the number of foreign guest-worker visas issued to help businesses in their states prepare for their summer peak. The two senators are also considered crucial votes on the health care bill currently floundering in Congress. . . .
Career staffers have bristled at being told to find the data to justify the rule, the sources said, and have raised questions about whether a regulation benefiting specific industries over others would hold up in a court.
As a result of the pushback, some of the specific details have been scaled back and the latest draft would target a broader set of industries that experience a late summer spike and, as a result, missed out on the first round of visas earlier this year. In addition to certifying they’ve attempted to hire American workers, businesses would also have to attest that they would likely fail or suffer serious financial harm without hiring guest workers.
Click and read all.