Virginia Families -- CALL TO ACTION -- Call/email members to urge au pair exclusion/clarification

[Anonymous]

Virginia Families – S.804 passed a House subcommittee last night (2/18/2020). There was discussion of the au pair program during the hearing, but they passed the bill on a 5-3 split. It comes before the full Labor & Commerce Committee on Tuesday, Feb 25th.

ACTION – **Please make calls.** There are 1,600 au pairs in Virginia. They need to hear from the families. I spoke with one clerk that said, ‘call your members, the sponsors and Committee members. They need to hear from you across the state.’

BASIC MESSAGE-- I am writing to ask for clarification to S.804 regarding the roughly 1,600 au pairs (J1 visa holders) in Virginia here on a cultural exchange visa. While sponsors of the program believe that this legislation does not include au pairs as they are not domestic workers, specific language excluding them from the legislation would make it abundantly clear and help strengthen the program. It's best to keep the protections as designated by the Federal program for their cultural exchange visa.

Call your Senator and Delegate. To access your State Senator and State Representative, go to https://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov

PLEASE also call the lead sponsors, Senator McClellan's office in particular.

LEAD SPONSORS of S804

Senator Jennifer McClellan: [phone]; [e-mail]

Senator John Edwards: [phone]; 540-985-8690; [e-mail]

Senator Ghazala Hashmi: [phone]; [e-mail]

Senator Lionell Spruill: [phone]; [e-mail]

LABOR COMMITTEE MEMBERS (please check to see if your Delegate is a member of the committee – though feel free to contact all of them either way)

https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/members/members.php?committee=H14

EMAIL BLOCK FOR COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]



I know it’s a lot of calls to make, but please consider reaching out to as many members as you can from the lists above.

[jsteele]

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/nanny-forum/posts/list/45/359911.page