Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to rise in support of S. 3821. which makes professional visas available for certain athletes and entertainers who are needed for work and competition in the United States professional athletic industries. Historically. minor league athletes enter our country as part of the H2B seasonal worker program. These visas are capped at 66.000 per year. and they often run out well before the year is out. So we. through this legislation. will allow sport franchises and companies to bring minor league baseball players. hockey players and ice skating performers into the country to perform or compete when they are needed. without being barred by the visa cap. It shifts these talented people from the H visa category to the P visa category. the same one currently used by highly skilled professional athletes. With this change. the United States will no longer lose these talented athletes to other nations because visas are not available at the right time. This is a necessary piece of legislation to fix our visa categories. and I am glad that we are able to get the support of both Chambers in a bipartisan fashion to pass this at the very end of the 109th Congress. Mr. Speaker.
Keywords matched
visa visas H2B