18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Major · Needs Congress

Cap and phase out the H-2B visa program

Not started

Printed page 612 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies

“Phase out the H-2B visa program. The H-2B visa, for nonagricultural seasonal workers, suffers from many of the same harms and abuses as H-2A. … Congress should immediately cap this program at its current levels and establish a schedule for its gradual and predictable phasedown over no more than 10 years.”

What has happened

Aug 27, 2026 Not started
Congress has neither capped H-2B at current levels nor set a phase-down schedule; it did the opposite. It extended the supplemental H-2B authority first granted in the FY2024 appropriations act through Public Law 119-37 (2025-11-12), and on 2026-01-30 DHS, in consultation with DOL, used that authority to release up to 64,716 additional H-2B visas for FY2026 on top of the 66,000 statutory cap — the largest kind of expansion the program allows. No bill capping or phasing out the program was found in the 119th Congress.
- DHS/DOL final rule: Exercise of Time-Limited Authority To Increase the Fiscal Year 2026 Numerical Limitation for the H-2B Temporary Nonagricultural Worker Program (up to 64,716 supplemental visas), effective 2026-01-30
  Primary Executive branch Feb 3, 2026
- DOL notice: Attestation for Employers Seeking To Employ H-2B Nonimmigrant Workers Under Section 105 of Division G, Title I of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, Public Law 118-47, as Extended by Public Law 119-37
  Primary Executive branch Jul 30, 2026

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Recorded as not started with the contrary action attached, following the Chapter 10 convention for asks the government moved away from. Nothing has been capped; the supplemental-visa authority Congress created has been renewed and used.
Negative search (playbook 1.6). bills.ndjson title match on H-2A|H-2B| agricultural worker|Farm Workforce: H.R. 2237, H.R. 3227 and S. 4995, all referred and all about protecting or legalizing farm workers, not capping visas. public-laws.ndjson (104 laws): nothing. Federal Register full-text "numerical limitation" "H-2B" since 2025-01-20: 8 documents, of which the only cap action is the FY2026 increase above.
#1686 (Cap and phase down the H-2A visa program) is the sibling ask and is logged separately; the H-2A record is different in kind, so neither item’s evidence stands in for the other.

Action: eliminate
Object: H-2B visa program
ID: 1688