Apr 18, 2008

ANLA Provides H-2B TestimonySource: ANLA

The American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) continues to lobby on behalf of extending the H2-B guest worker programs – and legislative reform in general – as the industry continues to face a mounting labor crisis.

ANLA submitted testimony last week for a hearing held by the House Sub-committee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law. ANLA Executive Vice President, Bob Dolibois, urged Congress to take prompt action, stating, “The failure of Congress to promote viable guest worker programs, in this case extending the policy of exempting returning H-2B guest workers from the statutory cap as they have in the past two Congresses, leaving employers in a precarious situation in the midst of an acute seasonal labor crisis, and leaves returning employees depending on that income to support their families on the outside looking in,” according to an ANLA press release.

Last week, ANLA also filed extensive technical comments on a pair of proposals by the Bush administration to overhaul the existing H-2A agricultural guest worker program.

“ANLA made clear that H-2A reform alone, even if completely successful, cannot solve the labor crisis now plaguing agriculture and the nursery industry,” said Craig Regelbrugge, ANLA vice president for government relations and research, in a press release. “We need legislative reform, and Congress must act.”