Angie Craig: “I will be brief, but at the same time I think what we have all said is very important to this issue. The H-2B class of…”

“I will be brief, but at the same time I think what we have all said is very important to this issue. The H-2B class of workers is a critical component to not just the seafood industry of our coasts but to the resort industry of our country. For any of you who have ever skied in the West and met this nice young lady or man who speaks with a Norwegian brogue and they are helping you up and down the ski lift, my guess is they are class 2B. If you have met a young man or woman waiting on tables at a resort, possibly in Sun Valley, ID, they are a class 2B. The reason they are there is because they come, they build a stable presence, they are there for the period of time our resort hospitality industries need them, and it is most important that we have them. Both Senators from Maryland have already talked about the dynamics of first that employer must seek domestic workers, U.S. citizens, and when that labor supply is exhausted they must seek elsewhere because they simply need that workforce. They come, they stay, they go home. It is a program that works well. I am going to be on the floor later debating another program that doesn't work well: H-2A. The reason it doesn't--and it used to years ago in the 1950s; identified the worker and the work necessary and the employer. We had nearly 500,000 in those days of H-2A, known only then as the Bracero Program. It was out of the great wisdom of the Congress, and it has not worked since. This one works.…”