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Competing Interests Complicate H-1B
Some congressional Democrats say they are experiencing a case of deja vu as they work to pass legislation that would increase the number of H-1B visas, describing balancing the needs of competing constituencies similar to struggles that surfaced during last year's Y2K litigation reform debate.
"I felt like it was Y2K all over again," said one aide to a top Senate Democrat who has worked on the H-1B visa bill. "We were caught between two important constituents. Republicans loved the spot we were in."
Just like Y2K legislation negotiated in 1999, Democrats this year are caught between two core constituencies, and Republicans have sensed an opportunity to score political points. While Democrats last year were forced to balance the interests of the high-tech industry with trial lawyers, Republicans pounced on the moment to argue they were the party that really supports the high-tech industry. This year, Democrats have been caught between helping the high-tech industry, while also supporting the interests of Democratic Hispanic voters.
Adding to the difficulties for congressional Democrats, is a desire to help Vice President Al Gore in his quest for the White House. Democrats do not want to anger the Hispanic community, which has sought, through the Clinton administration, to attach immigration measures affecting their community to the H-1B visa bill. At the same time, Democrats see an opportunity to score political points with their Hispanic constituents by calling for a vote on the immigration measures knowing that they would fail because of a lack of Republican support.
"The Democrats pushed this into partisan waters," said one House Republican leadership source.
The Blame Game
As the Senate readies for a vote this week on S. 2045, which would increase the cap on H-1B visas for foreign skilled workers, the high-tech industry has started to assess whether Democrats should be blamed for the delay in getting the legislation passed or whether both parties should share the blame.
According to several high-tech lobbyists, both Republicans and Democrats are to blame for how long it has taken for the legislation to work its way through Congress. Versions of the legislation, that the industry says is needed to help fill high-tech worker shortages, were moving through both chambers in the beginning of the year. One of the first glitches came this spring in the House when Rep. Lamar Smith, R-TX, chairman of the House Judiciary Immigration and Claims Subcommittee, passed H-1B legislation through his committee that the industry opposed because they said it contained too many onerous provisions.
Meanwhile, House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-CA, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-CA, drafted a bill, H.R. 3983, that drew bipartisan support in the House, including the GOP leadership, and had the backing of the industry. But the GOP leadership held off scheduling a floor vote on H.R. 3983 out of deference to Smith while it worked to find another avenue for the H-1B legislation, according to industry sources.
"Every time we went to the House Republican leadership to talk about scheduling an H-1B visa vote, they told us to go talk to Lamar [Smith]," said one high-tech lobbyist.
Administration Angles For Amendments
While debate dragged in the House over Smith's bill, the White House crafted a plan to attach Hispanic immigration measures on the H-1B visa legislation arguing that the H-1b visa measure is an immigration bill and other immigration issues would be relevant to debate. The Latino measure would grant amnesty and permanent residency to Latino immigrants, many from Central America.
Lofgren agreed to carry the water for the White House on Capitol Hill and insisted that the amendments be linked to the H-1B visa measure, according to an August report in The San Francisco Chronicle. The Latino measure had never come up during discussions between Dreier and Lofgren when they drafted their legislation, and Dreier saw the move as a political ploy to force Republicans to vote on amendments that could prove politically embarrassing. The move soured the bipartisan relationship between Dreier and Lofgren that had formed when they wrote the H-1B visa legislation, according to industry sources.
Lofgren further complicated the relationship with Dreier when she sent a letter in July, signed by other Democrats that reproached Dreier for refusing to include the Latino amendments in the legislation. The letter also said that House Democrats would agree to move ahead with H-1B legislation without the controversial amendments. The letter apparently angered Dreier, and further progress on H-1B legislation has stalled in the House.
"I think Lofgren and the White House are to blame…for the food fight that ensued, but the Republican leadership also deserves some blame for not moving this to the floor earlier in the year, before the White House realized H-1B could be used as a vehicle for the Hispanic measure," the lobbyist said.
The Senate also got tangled in similar politics, though S. 2045, sponsored by Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-MI, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-UT, have made further progress than their House colleagues since they passed a bill that is acceptable to the high-tech industry. But attempts to bring it up to the floor in the Senate, have been held up by the White House's insistence that it would support the legislation unless the Hispanic measure, now called the Latino Fairness and Immigration Act, S.3068, was included in the legislation.
Looking For Alternatives
It was not until last week when Senate Democrats agreed to find an alternative vehicle for the Hispanic measure in the spending bill funding the Commerce, State and Justice departments. To underscore to the Hispanic community that they still planned to vote on their measure, Democrats planned to circulate a letter saying they would sustain a presidential veto of the spending bill without the measure.
High-tech lobbyists say it is more important to focus now on the future of the H-1B legislation rather than to pinpoint which party is to blame for the bill's delays.
"The bottom line is, that this is getting done," said Matt Tanielian, director of government relations for the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI).
It is unclear whether the legislation, which has the support of at least 70 senators, will also have time to make its way through the House before Congress adjourns for the year next month. Congress is currently scheduled to complete its work Oct. 6, though 11 of the 13 spending bills that fund the government have yet to be signed into law. This delay could keep lawmakers in Washington beyond their Oct. 6 self-imposed deadline.
"I can't tell you yet whether H-1B visa legislation will make it the House floor," said a House Republican leadership source. "It all depends upon what happens with the spending bills."
Most high-tech analysts expect an H-1B visa bill resembling S. 2045 to be attached to a catch-all spending bill that would continue funding for the government and enable lawmakers to leave to campaign for the election. Having the legislation attached to the catch-all spending bill is not entirely satisfactory to the high-tech community though. Some worry that the White House or anti-immigration forces could force changes to the H-1B visa legislation to make it more onerous to the industry.
"This is a risky approach because the tech industry's champions on this issue are not likely to be in the room when the omnibus H-1B provisions are crafted," wrote industry-lobbying group TechNet in an e-mail to its member CEOs.
Still, after months of wrangling, the Senate's plan to proceed to the legislation this week is "encouraging," said ITI's Tanielian.
"Assuming what we hear is true and this results in a clean H-1B visa bill it’s a positive step and helps us clear the last hurdle that has been keeping both chambers from passing this quickly," Tanielian said.
 | - by Bara Vaida |
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