An emergency bipartisan bill is expected to be introduced in Congress this week to temporarily lift a federal cap on the number of foreign workers U.S. businesses can recruit for the summer tourism season, officials said Wednesday.

Maine and other Northeastern tourism officials fear an economic disaster if seasonal businesses can’t import foreign workers in time for the Memorial Day start of the season.

Tourism is Maine’s most lucrative industry, creating $14 billion a year in economic activity and employing 80,000 people – the vast majority Maine and U.S. citizens.

Last summer, some 239 Maine businesses sought visas for 3,528 workers. Vaughn LeBlanc, the state’s expert on federal job visas, said only 70 businesses had filed their applications by the deadline and that only a half-dozen of those have been approved.

All told, 217 employers had asked to bring 3,176 workers into Maine this summer. About 1,000 of the workers are employed by agriculture or forestry businesses. The remaining work for hotels and restaurants, doing mostly housekeeping, grounds and kitchen work.

“It’s going to be a disaster for the hotel industry” if the visa limit isn’t lifted, LeBlanc said Tuesday.

LeBlanc said state officials and business owners were taken by surprise when they heard the U.S. Department of Homeland Security planned to enforce the 66,000-visa limit for the year.

Last year, the cap was 66,000, LeBlanc said, but the government allowed almost 80,000 foreign workers under the H2-B program.

LeBlanc said the limit was violated last year because Homeland Security “had no method of keeping track of the numbers.”

That has since been remedied, leading to the abrupt notice that the government would enforce the limit this year.

LeBlanc said he started calling Bush administration officials two months ago to check on the visa program. “I e-mailed and called, but there was no response,” LeBlanc said.

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine will join a bipartisan group headed by Democratic U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts – home to the tourism mecca of Cape Cod – to sponsor the legislation.

The Kennedy-Collins bill would allow U.S. businesses to hire an additional 40,000 summer workers under the federal H-2B visa program, Collins said in a prepared statement late Tuesday.

“Enabling Maine businesses to hire temporary, seasonal workers is crucial to our tourism industry and our state’s economy as a whole,” Collins said.

“We obviously want to make sure that American workers have a fair opportunity to compete for jobs in this country,” Collins said. “But a labor shortage during an important time of the year will cause serious problems in a number of key industries with current labor shortages.”

Meanwhile, Gov. John Baldacci has asked the Maine Department of Labor and the state’s Office of Tourism to find ways to attract unemployed Mainers and students to the seasonal jobs.

The first joint meeting was scheduled for late Wednesday and was to include representatives from the tourism industry.

Collins spokeswoman Jen Burita said Wednesday the senator is particularly troubled that Homeland Security notified businesses on March 10 that the deadline for filing for the special visas was March 9.

The pending emergency legislation is seen as a short-term solution to the problem, Collins said.