House Republicans have established a deadline for amendments to their Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending plan, which contains a significant expansion of the number of foreign workers. If Republicans keep the increase, this will happen when there are more than 44 million Americans not working.

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee have put measures in a year-end DHS funding plan that would significantly increase the number of foreign workers that are in the American labor market, even as annual data reveals millions of Americans are having difficulty getting back into and staying in the workforce.

The committee decided this week that lawmakers have until Sept. 6 to file changes to the proposed funding bill. The Heritage Foundation has asked Republicans to take out the two parts of the bill that would let more foreign workers come to work in the U.S.

In a study of the bill, Lora Ries along with R.J. Hauman of the Heritage Foundation wrote, “Such major changes to legitimate immigration programs should be discussed and voted on within the authorizing committees, not just snuck inside an appropriations bill.”

As it stands, the $91.5 billion funding bill changes the rules for H-2A visas so that more farming businesses can hire foreign workers. It also changes the program so that employee positions don’t have to be classified as seasonal or temporary.

At the moment, the H-2A visa program lets U.S. farms hire foreign workers to do an endless number of farming jobs each year. These foreign workers are allowed to remain in the U.S. for a period of up to three years.

Breitbart News has been reporting for years that the H-2A visa program was used to bring in cheaper workers from other countries. Just recently, a farm in the state of Washington was ordered to pay $3.4 million because it fired its mostly female farmhands and replaced them with a majority of male H-2A visa hands from other countries.

The other part of the bill increases the H-2B visa program, which currently lets U.S. companies bring approximately 66,000 foreign workers to obtain seasonal non-agriculture jobs in fields like construction, the landscaping field, the hospitality industry, and the food industry, among others.

The financing plan will certainly increase the number of foreign H-2B visa workers admitted to the country by at least 20,000, placing them in direct competition with Americans of working-class backgrounds for employment in the generally well-paying blue-collar sector.

The H-2B visa program is just as bad as the H-2A visa program.