Thread: Two new bills introduced to increase H-1Bs!

Bill Gates says jump, and Congress says "how high"!
We need to urge our reps to fight this.

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http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2276297,00.asp

What Gates Wants, Congress Delivers

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.

The one Congressman got to see was salivating just talking to Gates.... what the Hell is a matter with these fools

I'm not kidding folks... he was all but licking his boots "While he giggled on" that it was a priviledge to talk to him

I believe it was Sen. Lamar Smith, R-Texas

AirborneSapper7 wrote:

The one Congressman got to see was salivating just talking to Gates.... what the Hell is a matter with these fools

I'm not kidding folks... he was all but licking his boots "While he giggled on" that it was a priviledge to talk to him

Politicians respect money and those who make lots of it, the hell with the rest of us!

Illegals take the low skill jobs and H1b’s will take the high skill jobs so all Americans need to go on welfare and let them do the work. I guess that's what they want