House Republicans have released text for a short-term spending bill that will likely come to the floor for a vote before federal funding expires at the end of the week. The legislation doesn't expand a provision from last year's spending bill that expands the H-2B low-skilled visa program and doesn't make any significant changes to refugee spending.
Back in September, Pres. Obama demanded that Congress fund a 29% increase in the number of refugees resettled in the United States for FY2017. He then requested a doubling of refugee funding last week to be included in the short-term spending bill to not only pay for the additional resettlement of refugees, but to also help pay to house and relocate thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) who have recently illegally crossed the southern border.
House Republicans rejected Pres. Obama's demands and only included small increases in refugee funding. The bill appropriates $300 million for refugee assistance in the Middle East, but stipulates that none of the funds can be use to resettle refugees to the U.S. It also appropriates $300 million to help the UACs at the border, but the funds can't be used until after February 1, 2017, giving Pres.-elect Donald Trump control of the money.
And despite a lat-minute effort by pro-H-2B advocates, the short-term spending bill does not extend a provision from last year's omnibus bill that exempts returning foreign workers from the annual H-2B caps. The H-2B visa is a low-skilled, guest worker program that is typically used by employers to fill seasonal and temporary jobs, but these are the very jobs that many Americans without a college degree rely on to make ends meet. Last year's provision allowed for certain foreign workers who held an H-2B visa in the previous three years from being counted against the annual cap of 66,000.
The short-term spending bill will expire in late-April of 2017, so lawmakers will need to draft legislation to continue to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year. The H-2B expansion and refugee funding are likely to become issues again in the spring.
To read the full text of the spending bill, click here.
