Diversity.com Article: High Tech Visa Bill Approved by Congress

By ANWAR A. HUSAIN
©2000 DiversityInc.com
Oct. 4, 2000

The U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives yesterday
passed a bill that sets out to bring in more skilled
professionals to this country. If the bill is signed by President
Clinton, who has indicated support, the number of
non-immigrant visas, designated H-1B, would increase to
195,000 annually for the next three years.

Foreign workers in computing and information technology, half
of them coming from India and China, likely would take up
most of that number. Visa requests filed before Sept. 1 would
be considered under the quota for the fiscal year 2000. The
following fiscal year, 2001, began Oct. 1.

Foreigners hired at U.S. universities and research facilities
would be exempt from the cap.

The bill, which had been expected to go through without
difficulty, was opposed by a single senator, Ernest "Fritz"
Hollings, D-S.C., while three others did not vote.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif, chairman of the House Rules
Committee and a co-sponsor of a similar immigration bill, said
in a statement yesterday, "It's great to see such a huge
bipartisan vote in the Senate of an important high-tech
initiative"

In voting against the bill, Hollings argued that the H-1B bill
failed to address the deeper problem of training American
workers and that it was passed by both parties in an effort to
curry favor with the high-tech industry.

" These jobs can and should be trained for in the United
States And now we presume a non-existent national crisis in
HIB for the high-tech political contributions" he said on the
floor of the Senate.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, announced the bill's approval at a
press briefing yesterday morning. Echoing the encouraging
comments made last week by House Majority Leader Dick
Armey, R-Texas, Hatch said that with a strong Senate vote
behind it, the bill should easily become law.

The bill was passed by a voice vote in the House later in the
day.

Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., co-sponsor of the bill,
sounded an urgent note. "The short-term problem is how to fill
the key positions immediately so that we don't lose
opportunities to foreign competitors or so that we don't force
American businesses to move offshore to where skilled workers
might live," he said.

The bill increases the visa application fee for sponsoring
employers from $500 to $1,000. This money would be used to
train U.S. workers and teachers on informational technology
skills, thus ensuring a skilled work force in the long run,
Abraham said.

Such funding is being used to address the concerns of
organized labor, which had opposed the bill on grounds that
better paying jobs are being kept out its grasp.

The bill had also hit snags earlier this year when Democrats
put pressure on the Senate to have it linked to a grant of
amnesty to illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States
before 1987, as well as with permanent residency to more
political refugees from Central America and Haiti.

Those complications had been removed last week after Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., told reporters he would
attempt immigrant amendments through other legislation.

Computer and high-tech companies had lobbied both houses
to pass the bill, reasoning that thousands of jobs would go
unfilled if skilled staffing could not be obtained from overseas.
The bill's approval yesterday was welcomed in their circles.

Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology
Association of America (ITAA), a trade alliance of the IT
industry, said, "Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle see high
technology taking the center stage of the American
EconomyGiven the high stakes involved, we are gratified to
see a bill move forward that simultaneously provides relief to
companies in urgent need of appropriately skilled foreign
talent, helps simulate new American jobs by growing American
companies and contributes to the re-skilling of U.S. workers."