Posted on 10/24/2005 11:55:32 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
Senate panel votes to boost H-1B visa limit by 30,000
The measure would raise the cap by only half as much as backers wanted
by Grant Gross
OCTOBER 21, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE)
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has approved an extra 30,000 foreign-worker visas for 2006 under a visa program popular with many technology companies, but the increase was halved from an earlier committee proposal. The committee yesterday approved legislation that would expand the cap on H-1B skilled-worker visas from 65,000 to 95,000 in the U.S. government's fiscal year 2006. The legislation, supported by several IT vendors, expands the H-1B cap by "recapturing" unused visas from past years going back to the early 1990s.
The extra visas would be available in years when the H-1B cap has been reached, as it has for fiscal 2006.
A Judiciary Committee draft proposal circulated in the past week would have allowed up to 60,000 more H-1B visas a year, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) pushed for a smaller increase. A Feinstein spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment today.
The 65,000 cap for H-1B visa applications in the U.S. government's fiscal 2006 was reached about two months before the new fiscal year began on Oct. 1. Congress allowed 195,000 H-1B visas in the government's fiscal year 2003, but then let the cap fall back to its pre-dot-com boom level of 65,000.
The Judiciary Committee legislation, which would have to be approved by the full Senate as well as the House of Representatives, also includes a $500 increase in the H-1B application cost. The current cost is $3,185.
Technology trade groups, including the Information Technology Association of America and Information Technology Industry Council Inc., had pushed for more H-1B visas, saying U.S. companies need to be able to recruit workers from around the world to compete in a global economy. The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), another trade group, and Microsoft Corp. applauded the committee's support of more visas.
SIIA President Ken Wasch called the need for additional technology workers "urgent" for U.S. companies.
"Despite concerns that the number of additional H-1B visas was cut in half ... SIIA believes that the proposal represents an interim solution for immediate U.S. workforce needs while also providing necessary revenue for the federal government," Wasch said in a statement. "Both of these objectives are consistent with the goal of positioning the U.S. for continued global leadership in innovative technology."
Supporters of more H-1B visas also pointed to benefit for U.S. workers, with $1,500 of each visa application fee going toward U.S. worker training programs. The committee's decision "will give U.S. business more ability to compete, succeed, remain competitive and provide new revenue for training U.S. workers and for deficit reduction," Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft's managing director for federal government affairs, said in a statement.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.-USA (IEEE-USA), representing U.S. IT workers, had opposed an increase in the H-1B cap. IEEE-USA would have preferred no increase, but "30,000 is better than 60,000," said Chris McManes, a spokesman for the organization.
Current law allows for a 20,000-visa exception to the H-1B visa cap for graduate students, and close to 8,000 student H-1B visas remain unused, McManes said. "Industry says it only wants to bring in the 'best and brightest,' yet thousands of the 20,000 extra visas ... are not currently being used," he said. "If they were only seeking the best and brightest, shouldn't these visas fill up first?"
In June, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported job losses in five major engineering and computer job classifications in the first quarter of 2005. Compared with the 2004 average employment, the number of U.S. computer hardware engineers dropped by 18,000 in the first quarter of 2005, a loss of 19% of those jobs from the same period in 2004. The number of employed computer software engineers dropped by 13,000, and the number of computer programmers, electrical and electronics engineers, and computer and information systems managers also dropped in the first quarter, according to government statistics.
Offsetting the loss of 52,000 jobs in those five categories was a gain of 54,000 jobs among computer scientists and systems analysts, according to government statistics.
IEEE-USA argued that the numbers show thousands of unemployed U.S. IT workers. "Part of the reason the additional visas aren't needed is because of the abundance of unemployed U.S. tech workers," McManes said. "That the cap for 2006 has already been reached doesn't show demand, it shows that U.S. companies aren't even looking for Americans first."
mexicans and canadians can't do those jobs? This is terrible legal imigrants coming in and taking good jobs from mexican and canadian illegals. </sarcasm
Really hypocritical, ain't it?
An act within our Congress to allow 30,000 visas..all legal and proper, right? While at the same time, we support, encourage and reward 10 MILLION ILLEGALS in our country.
Make me rather ill.
They are bad at 1/2 the american wage. Most of these visas are taken by ppl that work here for a few years living as paupers then return back to their country with the money and the experience.
Who the f*** needs the Democrats to screw us over when we already have the Republicans?
I have lost two jobs to outsourcing in the last four years and my current job will be outsourced next year.
When in God's Name will American politicians start acting in the interests of AMERICANS????????
Sadly to many in DC put party and power before their fellow Americans.
By law, H-1Bs must be paid the prevailing US wage for the job and the region.
India and Ukraine.
Way too many let in. They work for a lot less. A lot. It really hurts local contractors. They should not have raised it at all!
When enough of US band together and vote in some who aren't in one of the Two-Party Cartel. It's the only option left to US, lest we become uncivilized. Blackbird.
I totally agree with you.
Some "benefit"! Trained for what? A BA in burger-flipping or bed-pan dumping?
I worked with these H1Bs in the 90s. More than one told me they were put on salary and worked 60+ hours a week. The kicker is the mother company only billed the client for 40 hours. Which would you hire - an American contractor (usually paid by the hour) and have to pay for the extra hours or an H1B at a flat rate of 40? The eradication of the middle class continues.
They may have a harder time getting them to come here, now that experienced people can make large salaries in India.
Who would trade 18 lakh in Mumbai for 75K in Ohio? The good ones have more job offers than they can handle in their own country.
I am currently training my replacement H1B of course, He is a good guy and I have no resentment to him, I do have a lot of resentment of those who advocate the abolishing of the middle class of both political parties
More cheap labor for the tech industry in the U.S..
"..SIIA believes that the proposal represents an interim solution for immediate U.S. workforce needs while also providing necessary revenue for the federal government"
And how does the government generate more revenue by replacing taxpaying American workers with foreigners who make less money?
These people ( on both sides of the aisle ) don`t care about Americans or America, only with lining their pockets with campaign contributions.
"By law, H-1Bs must be paid the prevailing US wage for the job and the region."
I love that one.. It always makes me laugh.
Majority are computer programmers/tech industry jobs. Many come from places like India, Russia, Eastern Europe.
Were the wages american companies like Microsoft pay them is at least 2 to 3 times what they would make at home, but still less than what Microsoft would have to pay in wages and benefits to american programmers. I'm sure Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, etc.. are always the biggest backers of getting the number of H1B visas increased. THey always are.
I used to live near microsoft and there are entire apt complexs filled with indian H1B programmers. In the summer, they bring over their parents to visit, and the areas start looking like you've been dropped into a bollywood movie.
ping
Software is a buggy-whip industry. You should quit your whining and go back to school and be retrained for those millions of jobs soon to be available in nano-technology...real soon now...anyday...
< /sarcasm>
You can smell the complex (curry) from miles away too.
I worked with some of these men and women at a NY, Wall St. located bank. They're an affable bunch and competent. The companies sponser them, pack them three or four in a bunch into small apartments or houses in generally poorer neighborhoods. Their pay is a fraction of their American counterparts. Their language skills are dubious as is their understanding of the applicaions. They basically work on a monkey see, monkey do basis without any creative input.
The next CEO(IO) I hear saying that there is a shortage of qualified American workers should be, at least metaforically, punched in the face.
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