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Budget
Conference Committee to Begin Budget Negotiations After Spring Recess
When lawmakers return from recess Monday, April 20, Democratic leaders will push for conference committee approval of the FY10 budget resolution, with votes on final passage to follow in both chambers. The House budget resolution contains $1 billion in reconciliation instructions to the House Education and Labor Committee. The Senate version does not contain these instructions. The reconciliation instructions are expected to garner debate during the conference committee negotiations. It’s expected that pre-conference negotiations will take place on the less contentious differences in the bills throughout the spring recess, with larger negotiations to be dealt with once lawmakers return during the week of April 21.
Concerning other legislative items up for debate, Appropriations Committees will ramp up hearings on their respective spending measures and begin to move forward on the appropriations cycle for Fiscal Year 2010. It is reported that the House will next focus on an $83.4 billion supplemental spending bill to cover military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Senate will reconvene next week on Monday, April 20 and the House on Tuesday, April 21
H-1B Visa Program
Unions Seek to Limit H1-B Visas
On Tuesday, April 14, the AFL-CIO and the union political federation Change to Win came together to promote a jointly drafted proposal for comprehensive immigration legislation, forming a unified front that members hope will increase the chances that a bill is considered in Congress this year. The partnership is an obvious shift for organized labor, which was divided in its approach to immigration laws in the past.
The unions proposed a commission that would use economic indicators to decide how many foreign workers, permanent and temporary, should be allowed into the United States each year. Those appointed to such a commission would be charged with assessing the particular, targeted needs of the labor market, and adjusting visa quotas — of both temporary and permanent visas— to respond to those needs.
The framework for the proposal is based on five principles: (1) regulating the future flow of immigrants, (2) creating a system to find out whether workers are authorized to work in the U.S., (3) implementing rational border control, (4) adjusting the status of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., and (5) improving temporary worker programs.
It would also make changes to the H-2B visa program for seasonal workers and prohibit issuing those visas entirely if unemployment in a given sector is over 7 percent. The unions are also proposing to create a replacement system for E-Verify, which employers can use to check whether employees are legally authorized to work in the United States.
Business groups have said they will not support any immigration bill unless its language on temporary-worker programs lets firms determine their hiring needs. The Senate has indicated hearings will begin later in April; however, the current economic climate could make the issue difficult. Unions are already pointing to the economy to fight business’ interest in a temporary worker program.
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