By Fax ONLY: 202-__________________

Date

The Honorable _______________
Member of Congress
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Representative _______________:

I am writing to ask for your support on a Bill that is very important to me and my fellow________. As you may recall, you supported the House version of Senator Mikulski’s Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act in both 2005 and 2006. The H-2B returning worker exemption will sunset on September 30th, and Senator Mikulski and Rep. Bart Stupak have introduced the Save Small Business Bill for 2007. The House Bill is H.R. 1843. H.R. 1843 extends the H-2B returning worker exemption by removing the sunset language from the Act.

By recognizing that three years of a successful pilot program is enough to prove the worth of the returning worker exemption, the House Bill will help ensure that seasonal businesses can stay in business, and that the year-round American workers these businesses employ will continue to have their jobs.

Given the shortage throughout ________ of seasonal, unskilled workers, this Bill is crucial for __________ hospitality  and other industries. It is also crucial for swimming pool operators (huge lifeguard shortage), landscapers (acute shortage of landscape laborers) and other important businesses located in your District and throughout the State. The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, have each, in a series of articles over the past two months, detailed the real crisis facing seasonal employers and success of the H-2B program in addressing this problem.

It is important to the success of the Bill that all members of the ________ delegation co-sponsor this Bill. The citizens of ______  need you on this. Unfortunately, much to the sadness of seasonal employers throughout __________, you have not yet become a co-sponsor of the legislation. I would appreciate it very much if you would sign up as soon as possible to become a co-sponsor.

Here is a link to the co-sponsors of the House Bill (from the Thomas website):

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR01843:@@@P

And of the Senate Bill (S 988):

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN00988:@@@P

Thank you for your assistance on this. Please let me know if you or your staff in the DC office have any questions or comments.

Sincerely,
Name
Company