For months, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have been pushing the Trump administration to expand the number of foreign guest-worker visas issued to help businesses in their states prepare for their summer peak. The two senators are also considered crucial votes on the health care bill currently floundering in Congress.

So career staff at the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security took note last week when senior political officials ordered them to immediately draft a rule that would increase the number of H-2B visas, specifically mentioning innkeepers and fisheries in Maine and Alaska, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.