Media clips
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Congressional leaders should consider a different tack: an infrastructure spending bill. For political reasons, an infrastructure bill would be an easy A for representatives to take home to their communities. Passing a bill on infrastructure could deliver the kind of win that has been elusive for the 117th Congress so far. And, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, there are key macroeconomic reasons to invest in infrastructure, too. The report outlines two longstanding problems with the U.S. economy. One is a spending shortfall across households, business, and the government, which amounts to a dip in aggregate demand. The other is a slowdown in the growth of productivity. Capital investments in infrastructure could sort out both of these problems, according to Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute and the report’s author. (EPI cited and Josh quoted throughout. EPI chart used. )
CityLab July 19, 2017 -
But Celine McNicholas, labor counsel at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the changes, plus proposed deep cuts to the Labor Department’s budget, are alarming. While budget tightening and pro-business policies are to be expected with a Republican White House, the size and targets of the cuts and the number of rules being rolled back are “not business as usual,” she said. “If you consider all that, I would argue that the first six months of the Trump administration have been devastating for workers in this country — unprecedented even,” said McNicholas, who served as special counsel at the NLRB during the Obama administration.
Chicago Tribune July 19, 2017 -
Labor Advocates Lament Lack of Protections in New Foreign-Worker Visas
Public News Service/Suzanne Potter
Daniel Costa, director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, says the program ought to be reformed to protect workers from abuse, not expanded. “The way the program is set up, it ties workers to one employer,” he says. “So if they leave that job or if they get fired, they basically lose that visa status and become deportable. And so it gives employers a lot of power over workers.” The Trump administration says it simply is trying to accommodate requests from employers who are desperate for laborers. The current limit for H-2B visas is 66,000 – so this will bring that number up to 81,000. In a recent report, Costa found there is no nationwide shortage of workers in those fields. In fact, unemployment has been high and wages have been flat in these types of jobs for more than a decade. (Daniel quoted throughout)
Public News Service July 19, 2017 -
Even with these requirements, some fear that the new visas interrupt a trend in raising wages to attract American workers to seasonal and temporary jobs. And Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, told Reuters, “Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market.”
FindLaw July 19, 2017 -
Trump Administration Adds More Foreign Guest Worker Visas
The Huffington Post/Dave Jamieson
Daniel Costa, an immigration expert at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said there is no real evidence of a nationwide labor shortage in the industries that rely on H-2B visas, although employers could be strapped in certain geographic areas. In an analysis of 10 occupations, Acosta said he found that wages had remained stagnant or declined in nine of them ― an indication that employers aren’t raising wages the way they normally would if they had to attract workers. The available data “suggests that raising the H-2B cap is a bad idea,” Costa said in an email. Instead of adding more visas, the White House should focus “on program oversight, on rooting out bad-actor employers who violate H-2B rules, and on protecting the migrant workers who come to the United States in search of better opportunities.”
The Huffington Post July 18, 2017 -
U.S. allows more seasonal workers as Trump pushes ‘hire American’
Reuters/ Doina Chiacu and David Shepardson
A report on Monday by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, found, however, there was little evidence of worker shortages in H-2B jobs at the national level.
“Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the institute.
Reuters July 18, 2017 -
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, questioned whether the labor shortages claimed by businesses that rely on H-2B visas is real. The group has found wages to be stagnant or in decline in most industries that use the visas, a point that would undercut claims of a shortage. “Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market,” Costa said in a statement.
Baltimore Sun July 18, 2017 -
But Daniel Costa, who directs immigration research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said that the H2B program lacks enough enforcement to make sure American workers can benefit. As it stands, Costa said, employers can advertise jobs to Americans with unusually low wages and create a “fake labor shortage” that they’re then allowed to fill with vulnerable, easily exploited foreign workers. “Nationally, there isn’t actual evidence of labor shortages people talk about,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t some shortages in some places, but there need to be rules in place to ensure that a fair wage is being offered to American workers first.”
NBC Los Angeles July 18, 2017 -
The program allows companies to bring in 66,000 new workers each year — and also to keep workers who got visas in the prior two years. The rules allow companies to maintain a workforce of roughly 115,000 H-2B workers in the United States, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute.
Breitbart July 18, 2017 -
Well, for starters, profits. Existing trade laws and promise of cheap labor have enticed American companies to manufacture in places like China. A 2014 report by the Economic Policy Institute said that trade with China moved 3.2 million jobs out of the U.S. between 2001 and 2013. The report said that trade with China caused job losses in all 50 states and 2.4 million of those jobs were manufacturing jobs. “Growing trade deficits with China have hurt American workers and decimated U.S. manufacturing,” EPI Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research Robert E. Scott said in a December 2014 press release. “If policymakers are serious about supporting manufacturing jobs, we must work to put an end to China’s unfair trade policies.”
ATTN: July 18, 2017