AGC Urges Senate to Support Bingaman-Obama Guest Worker Amendment

June 6, 2007

Dear Senator:

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the largest and oldest construction trade association, is a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform and actively involved in the immigration debate currently on the Senate floor.  Though there are areas of significant concern to AGC in the Senate bill, S. 1348, the association is supportive of the process of moving forward.

One of the major tenets we have supported throughout the debate on immigration reform is the need to have a workable new visa program.  The construction industry employs more than seven million people and is projected to need an additional 180,000 net new jobs annually over the next ten years.  Although AGC continues to promote workforce training, recruitment and outreach to bring people into the industry, a shortage of labor currently exists in the industry.  We are strong advocates of a new visa system to address this shortage.

In order to make any new visa program work there are several core issues that need to be part of any such program.  The primary one is that a visa be valid for a long enough timeframe to ensure that the training and investment put forth by an employer are not wasted.  It can take three to four years for an employee to learn a craft through training and apprenticeship programs.  In addition, our members place a high premium on strong safety training.  In the construction industry, safety is a huge priority and having well-trained workers can literally mean the difference between life and death.   

While we appreciate the Senate including a new visa program in S. 1348, the legislation as written does not truly tackle the worker shortage in our industry.  The 2-1-2-1-2 program does not address the needs of our industry due to the training investment that would be lost every two years.  The mandated return home for an entire year makes this new system of very limited use to the construction industry and would provide little help in alleviating our worker shortage.  

As a result, AGC supports the amendment offered by Senators Bingaman and Obama on Y-1 Guest Workers that removes the requirement that such guest workers must return home for a year before renewing their visas. 

AGC encourages you to support the Bingaman-Obama amendment on the Senate floor.  We look forward to working with everyone in the Senate to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Sincerely,

Stephen E. Sandherr
Chief Executive Officer