In a message dated 3/15/08 2:27:48 P.M. Central Daylight Time, News@JobDestruction.info writes:
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1837 -- 3/15/2008 >>>>>
Bill Gates came to Washington DC to get more H-1Bs, and it appears that
Congress is reciprocating. Two bills were just announced that could double
and/or triple the number of H-1B visas. Both bills are being called
emergency H-1B hikes which means that Gates must be cracking the whip.
* The Innovation Employment Act (H.R.5630) sponsored by Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords (D-Ariz.), would double the H-1B cap to 130,000 beginning in 2008
and would allow the cap to almost triple to 180,000 if the limit is reached
in the preceding year. At the same time, it would potentially allow in many
more foreigners, as the bill would exempt from that cap anyone who has
received a master's or doctorate from a U.S. university in math, science,
engineering, and other technology fields (STEM). It would also undermine
the value of a U.S. education by allowing up to 20,000 additional H-1B
visas to be allotted for people who obtained STEM degrees from institutions
outside the United States. The Giffords bill contains a few reforms that
are transparent attempts at placating opposition -- like for instance some
restrictions on how bodshops could use H-1Bs. The text on this bill isn't
available yet.
* The Strengthening United States Technology And Innovation Now (or
Sustain) Act, proposed by Lamar Smith (R-TX), would raise the visa cap to
195,000 in 2008 and 2009. No more detail is available at the time of this
writing.
I would like to take issue with a statement made by Rep. Giffords:
Giffords sees the importance of H-1Bs because Southern Arizona has
been growing as a hub for tech companies, Karamargin added.
"There's a need to stay competitive and keep the momentum growing,"
he added. "That means making sure the talent is available to drive
the local and national tech economy."
The entire premise of Giffords' stated reason to raise H-1B is flawed
because Southern Arizona has very few high-tech jobs. If there is an issue
with foreign labor in Southern Arizona it would be mostly centered on
giving illegal aliens guest worker visas to do farmwork, construction, and
other types of manual labor. Most of the high-tech jobs in that area are in
Tucson, which is actually a minor player in high-tech compared to the much
larger Phoenix metropolitan area. Tucson's largest employer of H-1Bs is the
University of Arizona, which is exempt from the limits. There are a few
companies in Tucson who use H-1Bs such as Raytheon, Breault, and IBM but
their numbers are not very significant compared to most high-tech hubs.
About the only others that use H-1B in significant numbers in Southern
Arizona are school districts who use them for teachers and a few state
agencies that use them for various support functions.
Perhaps lots of H-1Bs would be attracted to Southern Arizona if the DHS
needed a few more technicians to set up video cams for the virtual fence on
the border. LOL!
Wishful thinking about high-tech employers moving to Arizona might be part
of Giffords enthusiasm for H-1B but her motivations go far deeper. She
isn't just trying to placate a few local employers or working to impress
Bill Gates. Giffords is beholden to the Republican National Committee who
not only allowed her to win but actively supported her even though she is a
liberal Democrat. The RNC allowed Giffords to replace Rep. Kolbe because
they wanted someone who would continue his legacy of pro-immigration
boosterism. Before the election Giffords' biggest claim to fame was that
she was the wife of an astronaut.
If there is ever an argument for saying both political parties are one and
the same, Gabrielle Giffords is a perfect example.
Awhile ago I wrote a short essay about how Giffords won the election. Read
it here:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-541784-.html
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Articles Included Below
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http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9894396-7.html?tag=nefd.pulse
House politicians propose 'emergency' H-1B hike
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031403
028.html
Bill Would Double Cap on H-1B Visas
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2276297,00.asp
What Gates Wants, Congress Delivers
http://www.topnews.in/usa/legislators-introduce-two-bills-bill-s-will-2109
Legislators Introduce Two Bills On Bill’s Will
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9894396-7.html?tag=nefd.pulse
March 14, 2008 12:12 PM PDT
House politicians propose 'emergency' H-1B hike
Posted by Anne Broache | 66 comments
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates clearly got through to some politicians with
his plea for more H-1B visas on Capitol Hill earlier this week.
Late Thursday, a U.S. House of Representatives Democrat on the Science and
Technology Committee, which Gates addressed, introduced a bill that would
double the number of H-1B visas and remove other restrictions from 2008
onward. Then, on Friday, a key House Republican followed with his own
proposal for "emergency" relief. His plan: tripling the visa cap.
H-1Bs allow foreigners with at least a bachelor's degree in their area of
specialty to be employed in the United States for up to six years. Right
now, the cap stands at 65,000, with another 20,000 for foreigners with
advanced degrees from U.S. schools.
The first bill, sponsored by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), would bump
the cap to 130,000 beginning in 2008--and increase it to as much as 180,000
if the limit is reached in the preceding year. At the same time, it would
potentially allow in many more foreigners, as the bill would exempt from
that cap anyone who has received a master's or doctorate from a U.S.
university in math, science, engineering, and other technology fields. Up
to 20,000 extra visas would also be allotted to people who had obtained
such degrees from institutions outside the United States.
The second bill, called the Strengthening United States Technology And
Innovation Now (or Sustain) Act, is even more aggressive. Proposed by House
Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith (R-Texas), it would raise
the visa cap to 195,000 in 2008 and 2009--the highest level since its peak
between 2001 and 2003.
Both bills are meant to address what technology companies say is a visa
shortage crisis. They're also more aggressive than other recent attempts to
increase the H-1B cap, which set a 115,000-visa target.
Gates and other technology company executives have long said they need the
ability to hire more foreigners--both on temporary visas and permanent
green cards--to fill gaps for which they can't find qualified Americans.
Gates maintained that H-1B visa holders at his company receive high wages,
prevent jobs from being moved offshore, and even lead to creation of more
jobs for Americans around those senior engineers.
Last year, the run on H-1B visas ended one day after it began, and the year
before, the supply was exhausted after about two months.
Criticism from programmers
The setup of the H-1B program, however, has landed a fair share of
criticism from American programmers, who argue that the visas depress their
wages and displace qualified American workers. There are also allegations
that the offshore firms--particularly Indian ones--have been snapping up
H-1B visas, recruiting foreign workers, and then outsourcing them to
foreign companies.
Ron Hira, a public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of
Technology and author of the book Outsourcing America, told CNET News.com
after Gates' talk that it's wrong to suggest most H-1Bs are going to the
brightest foreigners with advanced degrees and earning them big bucks.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the typical H-1B
holder has a bachelor's degree and is making a median salary of $50,000.
And the latest National Science Foundation report on the subject says only
1 percent of H-1B holders in computer fields held doctoral degrees (44
percent had master's degrees).
Other pending bills in the House and the Senate would place new obligations
on U.S. employers before making H-1B hires, including requiring them
recruit Americans first.
The application window for next year's crop of H-1B visas is set to open on
April 1, and it's unclear whether either bill will see action before then.
Both chambers of Congress are scheduled to begin a two-week recess on
Friday and aren't expected to return until March 31.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031403
028.html
Bill Would Double Cap on H-1B Visas
A bill introduced in the U.S. Congress would double the number of immigrant
worker visas available each year under the H-1B program.
PC World
Friday, March 14, 2008; 5:19 PM
Microsoft today praised a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress that would
double the number of immigrant worker visas available each year under the
H-1B program.
The Innovation Employment Act, introduced by Representative Gabrielle
Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, late Thursday, would increase the cap in
H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year. In addition, there would
be no cap on H-1B applications for foreign graduate students attending U.S.
colleges and studying science, technology and related fields. Currently,
there's a 20,000-a-year cap on visas for graduate students in all fields.
The legislation would increase the H-1B cap to 180,000 in 2010 to 2015 if
the 130,000 cap is reached the year before.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called for an increase in the H-1B visa cap
while testifying before the House of Representatives Science and Technology
Committee Wednesday. In recent years, the H-1B cap has been filled days --
or even the same day -- after the government opened the application period.
"We provide the world's best universities ... and the students are not
allowed to stay and work in the country," Gates said Wednesday. "The fact
is, [other countries'] smartest people want to come here and that's a huge
advantage to us, and in a sense, we're turning them away."
The legislation "would boost America's competitiveness by giving U.S.
employers the flexibility they need to hire the best talent available to
fill a severe shortage of qualified U.S. high-skilled workers," Jack
Krumholtz, management director of federal government affairs for Microsoft,
said in a statement. The bill would also increase U.S. jobs; Microsoft
hires an additional four people to support each H-1B worker, Krumholtz
said.
The U.S. government will begin accepting visa applications for next year in
April, and Microsoft predicted the cap would be filled the same day, as it
was in 2007. "The current system effectively prevents American companies
from hiring this year's foreign-born university graduates," Krumholtz
added.
Details of the Bill
The Giffords' bill would also increase penalties for H-1B fraud and allows
the U.S. Department of Labor to reject H-1B applications for "clear
indicators of fraud," in addition the current rule of rejecting only
applications that are inaccurate or incomplete. The bill puts important
safeguards on the H-1B program in place, said C.J. Karamargin, a spokesman
for Giffords.
The bill would prohibit companies from hiring H-1B workers, then
outsourcing them to other companies, he said. H-1B opponents have
complained that outsourcing companies are among the top users of H-1B
visas.
The legislation would also prohibit companies with more than 50 employees
that have more than half of their staff as H-1B workers from hiring more
H-1Bs, and it would prohibit employers from advertising jobs as available
only to H-1B workers, Karamargin said. "The bill would put some teeth in
the Department of Labor's oversight role" of the program, he said.
Giffords sees the importance of H-1Bs because Southern Arizona has been
growing as a hub for tech companies, Karamargin added. "There's a need to
stay competitive and keep the momentum growing," he added. "That means
making sure the talent is available to drive the local and national tech
economy."
But despite some attempts at addressing H-1B fraud, Giffords' bill would do
little to address worker concerns about the program, said Ron Hira, a
public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and former
chairman of the Career and Workforce Policy Committee at the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA.
"This bill takes none of the concerns raised by American technology workers
seriously," Hira said. He called the bill a "massive" increase in the H-1B
cap.
"This bill will basically do nothing to stem employers from using the H-1B
program as a source of cheap labor and to substitute for American workers,"
Hira said. "It doesn't require any kind of labor market test --
demonstrating that a shortage actually exists before hiring an H-1B."
The bill doesn't fix "serious problems" in setting wage floors for H-1B
workers, Hira added. "No matter how one dresses up this bill, it would do
nothing to curb the practice of companies bringing in computer programmers
for $12 per hour to displace U.S. workers," he said. "If this bill were to
be passed as written, it would do serious damage to the American
information technology labor market, displacing many American workers,
discouraging the next generation of students from entering the career, and
speed up the offshoring of high-wage high-technology jobs."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2276297,00.asp
What Gates Wants, Congress Delivers
ARTICLE DATE: 03.14.08
By Chloe Albanesius
The power of Bill compels you.
A day after Microsoft chairman Bill Gates appeared on Capitol Hill and
pushed Congress to increase the cap on H-1B visas two members of Congress
introduced bills that would do just that.
A bill from Sen. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would increase the annual cap on
H-1B visas to 195,000, while a similar bill from Democrat Gabrielle
Giffords of Arizona would increase the cap to 130,000 in 2008, and increase
it thereafter depending on demand.
H-1B visas allow foreigners with specialized skills to work in the United
States for a certain amount of time. The U.S. only issues 65,000 of these
visas annually, however, and they are usually snapped up immediately.
The number of H-1B visas issued annually dropped in late 2003 from 195,000
to 65,000. At the time, there was concern that foreign workers were taking
American jobs and bills in the House and Senate pushed for a decrease the
number of visas issued.
The tech industry, however, has been vocal in its opposition to such caps
because they say it prevents them from hiring skilled developers and
engineers from abroad.
Google executives, for example, appeared before a House immigration
subcommittee last year and pushed members to "significantly increase" the
number of H-1B visas.
"The current base cap of 65,000 H-1B visas is arbitrarily set and bears no
relation to the U.S. economy's demand for skilled professionals," Gates
told the House Science and Technology Committee Wednesday.
"Many U.S. firms, including Microsoft, have been forced to locate staff in
countries that welcome skilled foreign workers to do work that could
otherwise have been done in the United States, if it were not for our
counterproductive immigration policies," Gates said. "Last year, for
example, Microsoft was unable to obtain H-1B visas for one-third of the
highly qualified foreign-born job candidates that we wanted to hire."
Increasing H-1B limits could mean more jobs for Americans, Gates said.
"Microsoft has found that for every H-1B hire we make, we add on average
four additional employees to support them in various capacities."
Rep. Smith, who sits on the Science and Technology Committee, has long
lobbied for the U.S. to issue more H-1B visas. The bill introduced Thursday
"is an emergency fix that gives Congress and American companies extra time
to consider farther reaching changes to the H-1B program," Smith said in a
statement.
"By denying [foreign-born students] positions here in the U.S., we let many
talented and highly educated workers take positions with our competitors
overseas," he said.
Giffords, also a member of the Science Committee, has championed H-1B
reform efforts in the past as well.
Copyright (c) 2008Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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http://www.topnews.in/usa/legislators-introduce-two-bills-bill-s-will-2109
Legislators Introduce Two Bills On Bill’s Will
Submitted by Jane Kornblut on Sat, 03/15/2008 - 10:28. Bill Gates
Washington
Washington: It appears that US Congress yielded to the might of the
Redmond, Washington based software giant, Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates. Just a
day after Gates appeared on Capitol Hill to press the Congress to increase
the annual number of H-1B visas, two legislators introduced two bills to
fulfill Bill’s will.
Sen. Lamar Smith, R-Texas introduced a bill that would increase the annual
cap on H-1B visas to 195,000, while the Democrat Gabrielle Giffords of
Arizona introduced another bill that would increase the cap to 130,000 in
2008, and increase it thereafter depending on demand.
The two bills have came after Gates addressed U.S. House of Representatives
Democrat on the Science and Technology Committee to introduce a bill that
would double the number of H-1B visas and remove other restrictions from
2008 onward.
Annually, the United States issues 65,000 H-1B visas, which permit
foreigners with specialized skills to work in the United States for a
certain amount of time. The number of H-1B visas issued annually was
dropped in late 2003 from 195,000 to 65,000, because of the concern that
foreign workers were taking American jobs.
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