United States Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) continued his battle against the the H-1B visa program and it's supporters this week, charging that H-1B program takes jobs away from American workers. Senator Grassley said that he's willing to consider an increase in the annual visa cap if proponents agree to include reforms in the bill.
Intended to be a temporary program to fill jobs that that otherwise could not be filled with U.S. workers, the H-1B program has become a favorite of the high tech employers. The H-1B program instead of it's intended purpose, has allowed the tech employers to limit labor costs by depressing I.T. salaries nationwide via an increase in the available supply of technical professionals.
By depressing the I.T. salaries, the H-1B program has had an unforeseen effect, depressing the enrollment of students in I.T. training programs in U.S. Universities. Qualified students, seeing that I.T. positions no longer carry the prestige, high demand and salaries they once commanded have chosen more prestigious, higher paying, or less demanding majors.
This unforeseen effect, of decreasing I.T. students has further depressed the supply of I.T. professionals from U.S. schools to the industry, so once again, high tech employers are wanting to increase the number of available workers by substantially upping the number of H-1B positions available.
The changes that Senator Grassley wants to implement, are directed at putting the program back on track, allowing employers to go out and get the labor they need, but in order to do so having to pay a price, in much higher application fees. And then the government will use these increase fees to encourage U.S. students to go into the industry through loans and grants to promising students.
But the high tech industry says that these increased fees will keep them from using program, and therefore are impractical and must not be included in the final bill.
The proposed changes will keep those companies looking to use the H-1B program to control their labor costs instead of actually suppling needed workers, will be discouraged from using the program.
But those companies that really need the technical help will be able to get it, and while doing so, encourage promising students from U.S. Universities to fill those same positions in the future...
Check out what Senator Grassley had to say in Infoworlds:Grassley: H-1B visas being used to displace U.S. workers:
The H-1B program was "intended to fill jobs for a temporary amount of time while the country invested in American workers to pick up the skills they needed," Grassley said in the Senate on Monday, according to a transcript of his remarks. "Unfortunately, the H-1B program is so popular that it's now replacing the U.S. labor force."
Grassley, who has been a vocal H-1B critic, also cited a string of "bad apple" practices associated with the visa program. "One of my constituents has shared copies of e-mails showing how he's often bombarded with requests by companies who want to lease their H-1B workers to him," the senator said, referring to visa holders who are awaiting a work assignment -- or on the bench, in industry parlance.
"Another constituent sent me a letter saying that he saw firsthand how foreign workers were brought in while Iowans with similar qualifications were let go," Grassley said. "He tells me that he is a computer professional with more than 20 years of experience. He was laid off and has yet to find a job."
Grassley and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) pushed for H-1B reforms in legislation that was introduced last spring and then folded into a comprehensive immigration reform bill. However, the latter measure failed to win approval in the Senate.
They also have been gathering data on H-1B usage, including a finding that nine IT offshoring companies based overseas, most of them in India, used about 20,000 visas during the federal government's 2006 fiscal year.
Among the H-1B reforms sought by Grassley and Durbin are rules requiring employers to attest that they aren't displacing U.S. workers by hiring H1B visa holders and that they have taken "good-faith steps" to hire American citizens. The reform proposals put forward by the two senators would also give the U.S. Department of Labor more investigative powers and hike penalties for noncompliance, among other changes.
In addition, Grassley is seeking an increase in the H-1B application fee from $1,500 to $5,000. The U.S. uses the visa fees to fund scholarships for science, engineering and technology students.
"I'm willing to consider an increase in H-1B visa supply, but only if reforms are included," he said this week.
The immigration reform bill that was quashed by the Senate in June would have increased the current annual cap of 85,000 visas, which includes 20,000 that are set aside for foreign workers with advanced degrees from U.S. universities, to an all-inclusive limit of 115,000. Since the bill was rejected, there have been ongoing efforts to raise the H-1B cap in other pieces of legislation.
The push to increase the cap is also coming from groups outside of the IT industry, such as ones from the health care market. But high-tech companies typically have been the largest users of the visas.
Compete America, a Washington-based lobbying group that is spearheading a coalition of IT vendors and universities, is urging Congress to act on a cap increase bill before year's end. Robert Hoffman, an Oracle executive who is co-chair of Compete America, said the group has "always remained open to providing reforms of the program." But he argued that some of reforms Grassley is seeking would make the H-1B program too costly for U.S. firms to administer.
"We have said this from Day One: All things being equal, of course, we are going to hire the American worker," Hoffman said. "It's cheaper to hire an American worker." He added that companies need to employ support teams of administrators and attorneys in order to bring H-1B workers aboard.
As I.T. professionals we need support Senators Grassley and Durbin in their efforts to fix the broken H-1B program. One suggestion I wish to make, is to broaden the recipient pool of the increased application fees to retraining programs for I.T. professions who need to update their skills, but find that their technical employers would rather hirer H-1B candidates who all ready have the new skills than to retrain their existing employees. Sphere: Related Content
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