Congress's passage Friday of a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill may be good for the government workers, avoiding a much feared shutdown.
But it will not be good for construction workers, or truckers, or hotel-motel maids.
And a major construction industry labor union is already sounding off on the measure, which was negotiated and defended by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc.
Buried deep in the bowels of the bill is a provision, first reported on by WND earlier this week, that will allow a flood of low-skilled foreign "guest workers" into the country to take blue-collar jobs.
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Sean McGarvey, president of the North America's Building Trades Unions, slammed the lawmakers who voted for a spending bill, which included language that allows a quadrupling of the number of H2-B visas handed out each year – from 66,000 to more than a quarter of a million.
These temporary guest-worker visas will go to non-farm foreign workers who will take jobs in U.S. hotels, construction, truck driving, forestry, food processing and many other blue-collar positions sought by millions of Americans, according to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee on immigration and the national interest.
In a letter to Sessions, McGarvey said that in some pockets of the country building-trades councils are reporting upwards of 50 percent unemployment.
"The shameful language included in the omnibus bill will directly impact my membership, and the construction industry as a whole, across the country," McGarvey wrote. "As we climb out of this hole and finally show signs of rebounding, this action will certainly have a devastating impact."
Sessions said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., who negotiated the omnibus deal, mischaracterized the H2-B provision by downplaying its impact.
"The Speaker of the House is in error about this provision," Sessions said in a statement Friday. "He described concerns over the provision as 'hysteria' while incorrectly explaining its contents."
Ryan said: 'The H-2B worker provision in here. ... it's like 8,000 temporary workers for one year, is all this provision provides ... but I think there are those who for various reasons are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, making an issue something that it isn't."
First, the number of H-2B workers is nowhere near 8,000, according to Sessions.
The existing H-2B cap is already 66,000. But the omnibus bill eliminates the 66,000 cap by declaring that three years' worth of prior workers will not be counted against the cap – or adding another 66,000 times three – for a new cap of 264,000 low-wage workers, Sessions said.
"Secondly, it is not 'making a mountain out of molehill,' to try to save the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of loyal Americans from this influx of low-wage foreign labor," Sessions said.
WND was the first to report that the language expanding the H-2B guest-worker program was secretly inserted into the omnibus spending bill.
The spending bill also included full funding for Planned Parenthood, no withholding of federal grants to so-called sanctuary cities, and full funding of President Obama's refugee resettlement program that will permanently resettle 85,000 low-skilled foreign refugees in more than 180 U.S. cities and towns.
By funding these programs, Sessions said the GOP-dominated Congress has declared "open war" on its own constituency, the base of the Republican Party.
Sessions on Friday laid the blame squarely at Ryan's feet.
"The House's inclusion of the H-2B increase underscores that the growing divide between voters and party elites is not simply over means, but ends," he said. "Blithely dismissing the just concerns of the great majority of American voters, and especially Republican voters, is not a wise course for the Republican speaker.
"It is well-established that the omnibus fully-funds the president’s entire refugee expansion, illegal-alien resettlement, executive amnesty, sanctuary cities, and illegal-alien tax credits. But the problem is not only that there was no effort to protect American jobs, wages and communities from uncontrolled immigration – but that voters believe Congress has no desire to ever protect Americans from uncontrolled immigration."
Legal immigration in the U.S. continues to churn at all-time record levels, with 1.1 million immigrants entering the country legally each year, most of them on green cards, which provide an inside track to full citizenship and voting rights.
The share of American men in their prime working years without jobs has tripled since the end of 1960's. Workplace-participation rates for women have declined more than three full percentage points since 2000. Every three years, the U.S. adds the equivalent of another new City of Los Angeles through immigration.
"By an overwhelming margin, voters want immigration reduced – not increased," Sessions said. "The problem remains that insulated elites think record immigration still isn't high enough; imagine if these elites fought as hard to protect Americans as they fought to pass amnesty.
"If Congress wants to get serious about representing its voters, and winning their trust, it should begin by moving legislation next year to both end illegal immigration and reduce immigration visas. Congress should defend the citizens of this country with the same passion as the President defends the citizens of other countries."