On Friday, President Trump and Congress agreed to a deal that funds the federal government through February 15, halting the country’s longest shutdown after 35 days, and allowing roughly 800,000 federal employees to go back to work and receive pay. The impacts of the shutdown have been felt throughout the country, affecting families, travel, parks, tourism and even clubs.
H-2B Relief Stalled
The area that impacted clubs the most by the shutdown is H-2B visa reform. As previously reported by NCA, prior to the shutdown, language had been included in the FY19 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill that would double the number of H-2B visas available for clubs. The measure increases the number of H-2B visas to 132,000, and these new visas would be available retroactively to the start of FY19. That 132,000 number would be divided into quarters (rather than in half as is done now). If there are more requests than visas in a given quarter, then visas would be granted to employers on a proportional basis to ensure that everyone gets at least some H-2B workers.
NCA supports these revisions to the H-2B program as they give much needed staffing relief to clubs. However, the bill did not pass because of the focus on the $5.6 billion border wall issue.
While the stopgap bill includes language to negotiate funding the border wall, Trump does not seem optimistic that the money to pay for the wall will be in the DHS funding legislation. If a deal can’t be done, we may see another government shutdown after February 15 and further delays to H-2B visa reform. NCA will continue to push for the inclusion of the H-2B visa program fix during DHS funding negotiations.
Pros and Cons of No Legislation
The government shutdown has also stalled key legislation from moving through Congress. In some respects, this has been a positive for the private club industry as House leadership has prioritized the shutdown over other legislative issues that would negatively impact private clubs. In particular, labor issues like minimum wage, which the House has already addressed through a proposed a bill that would increase the wage to $15 by 2024, will be unable to move through Congress without the shutdown threat fully resolved.
Conversely, with no ability to pass legislation through either chamber, any pro-club legislation is unable to become law during this time.
Overall, it is unlikely that we see movement on any legislation other than bills that address government funding. NCA expects further delays regarding legislation that affects clubs.
Key Regulations Slowed
The shutdown has also slowed the review process of two rules. The new Overtime Rule is being reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget; however, with a short staff, this process has been slowed. In the Environmental Protection Agency, the comment period for its Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) Rule has been disrupted by the shutdown.
While movement has stalled on these two regulations, the delays will ultimately have little impact on when they will be implemented.
Relatively Unscathed
Fortunately, the private club industry has been relatively unscathed by the shutdown. Bills that would either benefit and hurt our industry cannot move, and regulations that would impose higher costs and administrative burdens to clubs have been delayed. As always, NCA and our allies continue to fight for pro-club issues during this stalemate. We will keep you posted on further developments.