Title: Prioritizing Help to Businesses Act
Policy area: Immigration

Summary:
Prioritizing Help to Businesses Act
This bill authorizes additional H-2B visas for temporary nonagricultural workers in states with relatively low unemployment. Currently, such visas are capped nationally at 66,000 a year.
For positions in states that had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.5% or lower in three of the five most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly reports issued in the previous fiscal year, a certain number of H-2B visas may be issued that don't count against the 66,000 per year cap. For such exempted H-2B visas, a state may receive each year no more than 125% of the number of visas for aliens working in the state in the last completed fiscal year or 2,500, whichever is less.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 135 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 135

    To prioritize the allocation of H-2B visas for States with low 
                          unemployment rates.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 15, 2019

   Mr. Thune introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To prioritize the allocation of H-2B visas for States with low 
                          unemployment rates.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Prioritizing Help to Businesses 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PRIORITIZING THE ALLOCATION OF H-2B VISAS FOR STATES WITH LOW 
              UNEMPLOYMENT RATES.

    (a) In General.--Section 214(g)(10) of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)(10)) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(10)(A) Except as provided in subparagraphs (B) and (C), the 
numerical limitation under paragraph (1)(B) shall not apply to H-2B 
visas issued to aliens for positions that are certified for employment 
pursuant to subpart A of part 655 of title 20, Code of Federal 
Regulations, to perform service or labor in a State that had a 
seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.5 percent or lower in 3 of 
the 5 most recent monthly reports issued by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics in the previous fiscal year.
    ``(B) The number of aliens exempted from the numerical limitation 
pursuant to subparagraph (A) in any State during any fiscal year may 
not exceed the lesser of--
            ``(i) 125 percent of the number of visas issued to aliens 
        working in such State during the most recently concluded fiscal 
        year; or
            ``(ii) 2,500.
    ``(C) If more H-2B visa applications are received in a fiscal year 
on behalf of aliens desiring to work in a State described in 
subparagraph (A) than the limit set forth in subparagraph (B)--
            ``(i) eligible applicants, in a number equal to such limit, 
        shall be selected, by lottery, from such applications for the 
        exemption under subparagraph (A); and
            ``(ii) the remaining applicants shall be subject to the 
        numerical limitation under paragraph (1)(B).''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take place on the first day of the first fiscal year beginning after 
the date of the enactment of this Act.
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