Great news! I was worried that the US senate would agree to the demands of some 'conservatives' who think that when the 'brain drain' occcurs here the US, that American jobs are taken. Of course, any time government gets bigger and attempts to prevent private industry from doing what it will, it ends up hurting the United States. In this case, 'Conservatives', unfortunately, including many Freepers, who argue that government should get biggger and meddle with and regulate whom high tech companies employ in order to 'save American jobs' are actually accomplishing the opposite of their intentions - as more Americans jobs would be lost if these immigratns were prevented from coming here....
I work for as a subcontractor for the Department of Defense in a division that handles all pay and personnel applications for one branch of the military. We're in the middle of a major expansion and cannot find the software developers we need to do the work in the time frame that the Pentagon would like. Why? Because as a part of the DOD all employees and subcontractors have to qualify for a security clearance. The H-1B movement has pretty much destroyed the U.S. born programmer base, and getting a clearance for an H-1B is damned near impossible. So we either lower our security standards or don't get the work done. Either way wouldn't you say that the U.S. is hurt? But which solution would you prefer?