A lobbying push is underway to ensure foreign guest workers can be hired to staff the rides and games that are a staple of summer carnivals and avoid potentially bankrupting the industry.
A few words tucked into a federal spending measure would give traveling carnival operators, struggling to stay afloat, a new way to hire foreign workers using the same visas used by overseas rock stars, professional athletes, and circus performers to enter the US.
“Basically, one sentence in an appropriations bill can get this fixed,” said Greg Chiecko, president and CEO of the Outdoor Amusement Business Association, the lobby ...