HR7682-119

What This Bill Does

The Closing the Workforce Gap Act replaces the fixed H-2B annual cap with the number of positions the Labor Department certified in the previous fiscal year. It divides that dynamic cap between the two halves of the fiscal year. H-2B workers employed in a qualifying rural and seasonal location do not count against the cap. Employers seeking that exemption must document eligibility during labor certification, and Labor must verify the exempt positions to Homeland Security.

A rural and seasonal location must be outside a metropolitan statistical area and outside any city or town of at least 20,000 people, and its population on January 1 or July 1 must be at least 50 percent greater than its continuous resident population. The cap amendments begin with the first fiscal year after enactment.

The bill raises a statutory H-2B fee from $150 to $350 and converts civil penalties for willful misrepresentation or petition violations from discretionary penalties of up to $10,000 into mandatory penalties of $1,000 to $10,000 per violation. Every H-2B employer must maintain a written, posted, multilingual-when-needed safety plan provided before work begins. Labor regulations must cover minimum standards, sexual harassment and violence prevention, complaint resolution, retaliation protection, and other workplace safety measures.

Employers must disclose foreign recruiters and cannot charge workers employer-side petition, legal, application, or recruitment costs. They must contractually prohibit recruiter fees and terminate a recruiter after learning it collected prohibited payments. Worker-responsibility costs such as required passport fees may be reimbursed.

Labor gains authority to investigate without a complaint and to seek penalties, money, injunctions, and specific performance. Any aggrieved person, organization, or bargaining representative may file a complaint within two years without waiving other remedies. After notice and hearing, Labor must order unpaid wages, benefits, damages, and civil penalties; may disqualify an employer for up to five years; and may permanently disqualify an employer after a later willful or multiple-material-violation finding. Broad anti-retaliation protections apply, and Labor, DHS, State, and EEOC must share compliance information.

DHS and State must publish an annual list of participating countries based on fraud, denials, overstays, worker no-shows, removal orders, repatriation cooperation, and U.S. interests. DHS may approve an individual from a nonlisted country only in its sole and unreviewable discretion based on U.S.-interest factors.

Employers must notify DHS within three business days when an H-2B worker does not report, disappears for five workdays, is terminated early, or finishes more than 30 days early, and retain proof for one year. Failures draw $500 to $1,000 penalties after notice and a 30-day reply period. If unpaid after 10 days, no immigrant or nonimmigrant petition may be processed for the employer and it may not continue employing nonimmigrants until payment.

The bill expands labor supply but does not eliminate labor certification, guarantee any employer an H-2B approval, create a Federal judicial damages action for workers, or make collected penalties available for enforcement unless appropriations laws provide for that use.

Who Benefits and How

Rural seasonal employers gain uncapped access to certified H-2B positions, and other employers gain a cap that follows recent certified demand. H-2B workers gain safety plans, multilingual notice, fee protections, complaint rights, back-pay and damages remedies, anti-retaliation protection, and stronger enforcement. U.S. workers and compliant employers gain program-integrity protections.

Who Bears the Burden and How

H-2B employers must document cap exemptions, pay higher fees, maintain safety plans, police recruiters, respond to complaints, report worker-status events, and risk mandatory penalties or temporary and permanent disqualification. Recruiters lose fee revenue and contracts when they charge workers. Nationals of nonparticipating countries face reduced visa access. Labor, DHS, State, and EEOC must regulate, investigate, exchange data, publish country statistics, process notices, and enforce penalties.

Key Provisions

• Replaces the fixed H-2B cap with prior-year certified demand.
• Exempts qualifying rural seasonal locations from the cap.
• Requires employer documentation and Labor verification.
• Raises a statutory fee from $150 to $350.
• Requires civil penalties of $1,000 to $10,000 for specified violations.
• Requires written and multilingual workplace safety plans.
• Prohibits employer and recruiter charges to workers.
• Creates a two-year administrative complaint process.
• Requires wages, benefits, damages, and penalties after findings.
• Authorizes temporary and permanent employer disqualification.
• Prohibits retaliation against workers and applicants.
• Requires annual participating-country designations.
• Limits individual country exceptions to unreviewable DHS discretion.
• Requires three-business-day employer notifications.
• Freezes petitions and nonimmigrant employment for unpaid penalties.