I have just sent a nasty-mail to Senator Mikulski. Sure wish she could be recalled. Here's why:
Senator Mikulski, who was also the proponent of the original exemption, slipped the amendment extending the loophole another year into a large group of amendments which the Senate adopted by voice vote. In a statement, the Senator said, "Without these seasonal workers, many businesses would not survive." She also asserted her determination to press for a permanent expansion when the opportunity arises. (The Daily Times, October 17, 2007).
An amendment to appease businesses that use the H-2B guest worker program, which allows them to import tens of thousands unskilled non-agricultural workers each year. The amendment (S.A. 3311), sponsored by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), grants a one-year extension to an existing loophole in the existing 66,000 cap. This loophole allows Homeland Security to exempt an H-2B worker from counting towards the cap if the worker received an H-2B visa in one of the previous three years. This means that the number of H-2B workers grows annually despite the cap. Last year, for example, 122,541 H-2B visas were issued, of which 50,854 were not counted against the non-immigrant visa cap because they were issued to returning workers. The latest extension of the so-called returning worker exception means that returning H-2B workers may well constitute over half of the H-2B workers in the U.S. in fiscal year 2008.
Mikulski has always been a little off her rocker. She apparently doesn't remember how many high school and college age kids make a beeline for Ocean City, Annapolis, Baltimore Inner Harbor, Assateague Island and other places on the Eastern Shore for "seasonal" jobs in the fishing, restaurant, and tourist industry.
"A woman who demands further gun control legislation is like a chicken who roots for Colonel Sanders." Larry Elder