Maine businesses are again concerned they will not have the workers they need this summer because the U.S. Labor Department is slow to process the necessary visas. While the immigration debates concerned about letting terrorists into the country are valid, long delays that leave businesses scrambling are unacceptable.

In 2004, the federal government for the first time enforced the national limit of 66,000 visas for seasonal foreign workers covered by the H2B visa. The cap was reached in March of that year. In 2005, the cap was reached in January. Because southern states need their workers earlier in the year, the cap was more harmful to Northeastern states. As a temporary solution, Sen. Susan Collins worked to pass a provision allowing past H2B visa holders to return to the United States without being counted against the cap.

This year, however, the problem is the government’s slow visa processing.

Greg Dugal of the Maine Innkeepers Association blames the closure of a Department of Labor processing center in Boston, which means Maine’s visa applications are processed in Atlanta. The department must certify that American workers could not be found to fill the jobs for which companies have applied for H2B workers. “The consolidation has resulted in less people doing the same amount of work, hence backups and sometimes no response at all,” Mr. Dugal says. The tourism industry employs about 2,500 H2B workers a year.

Compounding the problem are staff reductions at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which has the final say on visa requests. Some requests have taken up to two months to be processed.

While businesses know to apply early, the long delays leave hotels, restaurants, landscape companies and others across the country wondering whether they’ll have enough workers for the busy summer season.

Under the immigration bill now before Congress, seasonal foreign workers would be covered by a new Y2B visa. The cap would be raised to 100,000 of these visas, with the potential to issue 200,000 to meet demand.

Especially if lawmakers allow more people to use this type of visa, they must ensure that government agencies can complete the paperwork in a short time period. The Department of Labor says H2B applications have increased by 30 percent while funding for the division that processes them has decreased.

Slowly, Congress has improved the H2B program, but it has work yet to do to ensure businesses have the workers they need.