December 5, 2008
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House

H.R. 1261, Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act
Sponsor: Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon, R-Calif.
Introduced: March 13, 2003
Committee: House Education and the Workforce
Description: H.R. 1261 would reauthorize the law that oversees the nation's workforce development and adult education programs by requiring that adult education programs focus on basic skills such as math and reading. Technology industry groups have lobbied to ensure that workforce investment boards, which manage many development programs in the states, continue to work closely with tech firms and local universities to increase the number of graduates with math and science skills. The act also is important to the tech community because some funds raised through the H-1B visa program for highly skilled workers from other countries is allocated to job-training programs under the act. Some tech firms hire workers who have H-1B visas.
S. 1635, L-1 Visa (Intracompany Transferee) Reform Act
Sponsor: Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
Introduced: Sept. 17, 2003
Committee: Senate Judiciary
Description: S. 1635 seeks to avoid abuse of the L-1 visa program. L-1s allow companies with subsidiaries abroad to bring foreign executives or workers with particular skills to the United States. The bill would stipulate that those workers be supervised by eligible employers and not work in this country unless their services are truly needed. The Homeland Security Department would have to keep statistics on L-1 petitions.
H.R. 1807, Trade Adjustment Assistance for Self-Employment Act
Sponsor: Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y.
Introduced: April 11, 2003
Committee: House Ways and Means
Description: H.R 1807 would let qualified people use funds from the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program for self-employment training. Congress created TAA under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement to help squelch the fear of job losses from that trade deal. Some of the workers in the program retrain for technology jobs. The bill would allot $2,500 per eligible worker for two years of self-employment training in benefit allowances, training and other employment services.
H.R. 1996, Untitled
Sponsor: Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.
Introduced: May 6, 2003
Committee: House Education and the Workforce
Description: H.R. 1996 would exempt from the minimum wage and mandatory overtime compensation any employee who is a compute, network or database analyst, designer, developer, programmer or software engineer.
H.R.2849, USA Jobs Protection Act
Sponsor: Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn.
Introduced: July 24, 2003
Committee: House Judiciary Committee
Description: H.R. 2849 would overhaul the rules governing the H-1B and L-1 visa programs for foreign workers. H-1Bs allow U.S. firms to temporarily hire highly skilled workers from other countries; L-1s allow companies with subsidiaries abroad to bring foreign executives or workers with particular skills to the United States. The bill would end the practice of subcontracting workers with L-1 visas to other companies, require that those workers be paid the prevailing wage and ensure that attempts to find American workers for jobs are documented, among other things. A Senate companion bill, S. 1452, was introduced.
H.R. 3228, Untitled
Sponsor: Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt.
Introduced: Oct. 2, 2003
Committee: House Financial Services
Description: H.R. 3228 would halt normal trade relations with China and prevent that status in the future. Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., said a primary reason he introduced the bill is because American companies like Motorola and IBM have eliminated jobs in the United States while working to create new ones in China.
H.R. 3678, Untitled
Sponsor: Rep. Amo Houghton, R-N.Y.
Introduced: Dec. 8, 2003
Committee: House Ways and Means
Description: H.R. 3678 would amend the tax code to expand the work-opportunity tax credit to people in the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. The tax credit currently applies to nine targeted groups of job seekers whose hiring can bring employers reductions in federal income taxes by as much as $2,400 per worker. The bill would add a category for TAA workers, who are eligible for retraining courses and other benefits when lose jobs as the result of trade deals. Some people in the TAA program get training for high-tech assignments.

Senate


S. 769, Private Security Officer Employment Authorization Act
Sponsor: Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
Introduced: April 2, 2003
Committee: Senate Judiciary
Description: S. 769 would create a process for checking the backgrounds of applicants for jobs as private security officers. Under the bill, the applicants would grant their permission to use fingerprints or other identifiers for the background checks. The data would be checked against the electronic records of the FBI’s division on criminal-justice information services.
S. 988, Untitled
Sponsor: Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.
Introduced: May 5, 2003
Committee: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Description: S. 988 would authorize money for a job-training program. The training would focus on skills such as using computers and practicing accounting. The program would offer grants of about $10,000 per participant for a minimum of 160 hours of training.
S. 1299, Trade Readjustment and Development Enhancement for America's Communities Act
Sponsor: Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine
Introduced: June 19, 2003
Committee: Senate Finance
Description: S. 1299 seeks to help communities negatively affected by trade by providing technical and economic assistance toward developing plans for strategic economic growth. The measure would authorize the Commerce Department to identify communities that qualify for assistance. Some of the people who are hurt by trade deals later train for jobs in the technology industry.
S. 1452, USA Jobs Protection Act
Sponsor: Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
Introduced: July 24, 2003
Committee: Senate Judiciary
Description: S. 1452 would overhaul the rules governing the H-1B and L-1 visa programs for foreign workers. H-1Bs allow U.S. firms to temporarily hire highly skilled workers from other countries; L-1s allow companies with subsidiaries abroad to bring foreign executives or workers with particular skills to the United States. The bill would end the practice of subcontracting workers with L-1 visas to other companies, require that those workers be paid the prevailing wage and ensure that attempts to find American workers for jobs are documented, among other things. A House companion bill, H.R. 2849, was introduced.
S. 1688, Securing American Factory Employment (SAFE) Act
Sponsor: Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
Introduced: Sept. 30, 2003
Committee: Senate Finance
Description: S. 1688 would give tax breaks to companies that locate and maintain factories in the United States and that cover the cost of providing healthcare benefits for retirees. Some technology companies have begun to move certain operations to other countries, so the bill could be an incentive for them to stay in the United States.
S. 1873, Call Center Consumer's Right to Know Act
Sponsor: Sen. Thomas Daschle, D-S.D.
Introduced: Nov. 17, 2003
Committee: Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
Description: S. 1873 would require employees at technical-support call centers who place or receive calls to inform the callers where the support center is located. Noncompliance could result in civil penalties. Advocates of the measure said many callers do not know that sometimes third-party contractors field the calls from international locations.
S. 1890, Stock Option Accounting Act
Sponsor: Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo.
Introduced: Nov. 19, 2003
Committee: Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
Description: S. 1890 is designed to curtail plans to revamp accounting standards for employee stock options and to address the issue of excessive executive compensation. The bill would require companies to expense stock options for their top five executives and retain the current practice for other employees' options. The measure, introduced to counteract plans by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to require the expensing of all stock options, also would prohibit expensing until the true value of options can be estimated. And the measuare would require the Labor and Commerce departments to conduct an economic impact study on the accounting change.
S. 1965, Community Workforce Development and Modernization Partnership Act
Sponsor: Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
Introduced: Nov. 25, 2003
Committee: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Description: S. 1965 would authorize money for community workforce partnerships aimed at helping companies that face modernization or worker retraining. Dislocated or at-risk workers at companies with fewer than 250 employees would be the primary audience for possible grants to pay for training, additional skills or placement. Grants would be given to companies pledging to match or exceed government dollars, starting with $15 million in fiscal 2004.

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