DPE Response to U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Proposed H-1B Weighted Selection Process
October 24, 2025
The Honorable Kristi Noem
Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE
Washington, DC 20528-0525
Re: Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H–1B Petitions (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) (DHS Docket No. USCIS-2025-0040)
Dear Secretary Noem,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding “Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking to File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions” (RIN 1615-AD01).
The NPRM is directly relevant to DPE’s affiliate unions, which represent over four million professional, technical, and other highly skilled workers. Members of DPE’s unions include U.S. citizens, permanent residents, H-1B beneficiaries, and people who hope to be H-1B beneficiaries in the future. DPE’s response to the NPRM, as well its long-time advocacy for fundamental reforms to the H-1B visa program, is informed by the experiences of these union professionals.
DPE believes that the H-1B program plays an important role in the economy by attracting skilled talent, including members of our unions, to the United States. However, the program, which Congress intended to permit U.S. employers to hire people from abroad when they could not find qualified, available U.S. professionals, is now a tool for employers to lower labor costs. Employers can replace U.S. professionals with H-1B workers who are paid below-market wages in employment arrangements where the employer controls their ability to live and work in the United States. Today the vast majority of H-1B visas go to companies engaged in outsourcing and offshoring and most H-1B workers earn wages below the median, 50th percentile for their occupation and area.
A major reason for the low wages and reliance on the program by outsourcing firms is the visa allocation process administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). DPE agrees that DHS has the authority to determine how the government selects H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limit. The statute requires the agency to select petitions in the order in which they are received, which is practically impossible when USCIS receives more petitions than available visas. Currently, when this occurs, USCIS uses a random lottery process that was never formalized through the regulatory process.
DHS Should Pursue A More Effective Wage-Based Visa Allocation Process
DPE recommends that DHS use its regulatory authority to adopt a wage-based visa allocation process when demand for annual cap-subject visas outpaces supply. Establishing a wage-based allocation system will provide greater certainty to employers, while incentivizing them to pay more competitive wages. DPE also expects an increased number of international graduates from U.S. colleges and universities will be hired on H-1B visas since education attainment and time in the U.S. should command higher salaries.
A wage-based allocation system will also advantage direct-hire employers, including start-ups and small businesses, over the large outsourcers whose business model is built on gaming the random lottery by filing thousands of petitions in an effort to increase their chances of “winning” large shares of H-1B visas every year. In 2022, 13 of the top 30 H-1B employers were outsourcing firms; these companies received 21% of the cap-subject H-1B visas for new workers (17,534 visas). Year after year, these same companies pay their H-1B workers at the lowest possible wage levels, well below the local median wage for occupations.
DPE believes that a wage-based allocation process will more effectively improve the H-1B visa allocation process than the proposed weighted selection process. DHS’s own analysis suggests that employers wanting to pay H-1B workers the lowest allowable wages will still be able to do so under the proposed weighted selection process. Whereas, under a wage-based allocation system, petitions for Level 1 wage level jobs would likely not be selected. At the same time, DPE rejects the idea presented by some that employers cannot hire H-1B workers for early career jobs without being able to pay Level 1 jobs. Instead employers will need to raise wages to more accurately match actual labor market conditions, which has positive effects for U.S. professionals and people working on H-1B visas.
More Needed to Fully Reform H-1B and Other Temporary Work Visa Programs
DPE urges the Administration to go beyond the present NPRM to help improve the H-1B and other temporary work visa programs for professionals. Funding and staffing should be returned to labor agencies. H-1B prevailing wage rates should be updated so that employers cannot pay less than the local median wage for an occupation. Outsourced work arrangements where H-1B workers are assigned to third party job sites should be prohibited. Employers who violate labor and employment laws should be barred from the H-1B and other temporary work visa programs. Protections, including work authorization, should be provided to noncitizen workers who blow the whistle on employers’ violations of labor and employment law. Foreign labor recruiters should be regulated and prohibited from charging fees to workers.
Administrative actions, including improving the visa allocation process and implementing DPE’s other recommendations, are important steps to fixing the broken H-1B visa program, but Congressional action is necessary to achieve lasting reforms. DPE therefore urges the Administration to support the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, bipartisan legislation that would go a long way toward reforming both visa programs by lifting wages, promoting worker empowerment, and ensuring that employees can exercise their workplace rights free of retaliation or coercion. In addition, Congress should allow H-1B and L-1 nonimmigrants to self-petition for permanent status and provide them the freedom to change jobs while waiting for available immigrant visas.
DPE also strongly urges support for the Keep STEM Talent Act, bipartisan legislation that enables talented graduates from U.S. colleges and universities to continue contributing to the American economy while ensuring that they can earn a fair return on their work. Under this legislation, international graduates who earn advanced STEM degrees from American universities are exempt from the annual green card caps so long as their employers receive approved labor certifications and pay them above the local median wage level for their specific occupation. The Keep STEM Talent Act offers in-demand graduates a high-road alternative to the H-1B and other precarious, temporary work visas, while enhancing America’s global leadership.
Conclusion
The experience of union professionals demonstrates why the H-1B program must be reformed. DPE agrees that DHS has the authority to regulate the visa allocation process. However, instead of the proposed weighted selection process, DPE recommends DHS implement a more effective wage-based visa allocation process. Allocating visas by wage level will provide greater certainty, encourage competitive wages, and reduce outsourcing and offshoring. At the same time, the Administration should do more to protect labor standards for all professionals.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
AEMI Sign-on Statement for Record of Senate HELP Committee Hearing on Portable Benefits
July 17, 2025
The Honorable Bill Cassidy Chairman,
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Bernie Sanders Ranking Member,
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Cassidy and Ranking Member Sanders,
The below listed Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industries (AEMI) coalition unions within the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) urge the committee to reject any legislation that would make it easier for employers to misclassify workers or evade their responsibilities under federal and state workplace laws.
The AEMI coalition consists of national unions that represent professionals in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. By virtue of its size and scope of coverage, the AEMI is the leading voice in the labor movement on public policy in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. The AEMI unions’ members include actors, cinematographers, choreographers, dancers, directors, musicians, photographers, recording artists, stage managers, singers, technicians, stagehands, and other crafts. They help power a sector of the economy that regularly generates four percent of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP), creates a positive trade balance, and employs more than five million people.
The vast majority of AEMI union members are no different than working Americans in any other sector. They are everyday employees who depend on finding work in the businesses of others in order to put food on the table, pay next month’s rent, and support their families.
What distinguishes AEMI union members is that most work gig-based employment. A union creative professional is likely to have many employers in a year, and may even have multiple employers in the same week, due to the short duration of a single production or performance. In each of these short-term, W-2 jobs, AEMI union members will receive pay and high quality portable benefits at each union-covered job they work.
AEMI union members are proud that they have helped build a sector through collective bargaining that demonstrates people can work in flexible W-2 jobs for multiple employers that provide family-supporting pay and high-quality portable benefits like health care, defined benefit pensions, and training funds that are consistent from job to job.
AEMI union members are deeply concerned about efforts to misclassify employees as independent contractors. While protected by strong union contracts, union creative professionals still rely on proper employee classification for their rights under employment, civil rights, and workers’ compensation laws.
Short-term “gig” work is not a new phenomenon. AEMI union members have been working gig jobs for over a century. Creative professionals know as well as anyone that employers can provide portable benefits and properly classify W-2 employees in industries where short-term work is an inherent industry feature. They also know that their industries are better off because workers have a voice through collective bargaining.
Instead of finding ways to limit the rights of working Americans, the below signed unions urge this Committee to pursue legislation like the PRO Act that would empower more professionals to negotiate portable benefit plans and other innovations with their employers that lead to long-lasting, successful industries.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE’s Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser, at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Actors’ Equity Association (Equity)
American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA)
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE)
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU)
Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC)
AEMI Statement to House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee regarding FY 26 NEA and NEH Funding
April 4, 2025
Dear Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Pingree,
On behalf of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I urge the Subcommittee to fund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) at no less than $209 million each in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026.
Many members of DPE’s affiliate unions in the arts, entertainment, and media industries earn their living working on NEA and NEH-supported productions, programs, and performances. Still more union creative professionals who are employed now in the commercial parts of these industries started their careers working in the nonprofit arts and public media.
Providing no less than $209 million each for the NEA and NEH will ensure that the agencies can continue to support good-paying, family-supporting jobs for middle-class Americans across every state and congressional district. The two agencies are economic drivers that help put people to work creating artistic and educational content, and often in places far from large cultural centers. NEA and NEH-funded programs help veterans heal from the invisible scars of war, inspire the next generation of creators and innovators, and unite people across small towns and big cities. Increasing the NEA and NEH annual funding level to no less than $209 million in FY 2026 is also an important step toward a historical full funding level of $341 million, or $1 per capita.
NEA and NEH funding is also good for local economies. Research shows that audiences spend an estimated $38.46 per person, per event, beyond the cost of admission, on an assortment of goods and services within the communities where they attend arts and cultural programs.
In addition, for many creative professionals, NEA and NEH-funded programs have served as an entry point to careers in commercial arts and entertainment, particularly people who grew up in rural areas. NEA and NEH-funded programs provided these individuals opportunities to develop valuable skills, gain on-the-job experience, and build professional connections.
Put simply, the NEA and NEH continue to be critical agencies for America’s workers and its local economies. Both endowments deliver a high return on investment and cannot be replaced by the private sector. I urge the Subcommittee to fund the NEA and NEH at no less than $209 million each.
If you have any questions, please contact me or DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser, at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President