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Laboring For More H-1B Visas
by Brittany R. Ballenstedt
Visas for highly skilled foreigners are near and dear to the hearts of technology companies, and a fresh round of debate is sure to flourish in the 110th Congress.
President Bush is a long-time supporter of raising the cap on such H-1B visas, affirming that there are more high-tech jobs in America today than there are workers available to fill them. He touched on the issue in his State of the Union address and in a speech to DuPont workers last week, saying that it is priority for him to work with Congress to boost the federal cap.
The technology industry will be making the case for an expansion and already has begun its outreach to lawmakers. But they may have a harder sell with Democrats in control of both chambers because some members of the party worry about U.S. jobs going to immigrants.
The Outlook Under Democratic Rule
H-1B visas enable foreign engineers, programmers and other highly skilled professionals to work in the United States for up to six years. Established by a 1990 immigration law, the program had a cap of nearly 200,000 before Congress lowered it to 65,000 in 2005.
The demand for skilled foreign workers in fiscal 2007 was so high that the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services reached the 65,000 cap less than two months after it began accepting applications. Legislative efforts to raise the ceiling have failed, including two attempts in the 109th Congress that stalled amid the broader debate over immigration.
California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, the chairwoman of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, said she foresees high-tech visas as being part of the immigration discussion again this year. "I don't think we're inclined to take any one issue ahead of any other at this point," she said. "At the current time, the thought is we'd move all the issues in one comprehensive bill."
She plans to examine the needs of the American economy. She also emphasized that H-1B visas can be used for many types of employment, including modeling, dancing and journalism. "If you have 10,000 math teachers on an H-1B visa, then maybe we don't have enough math teachers," Lofgren said. "It's important to meet the needs of the economy while making sure the American workforce is protected."
Lofgren said her subcommittee also will examine the Labor Department's electronic review process for H-1Bs, which several Government Accountability Office reports have cited as having numerous flaws. She said the technology behind it must be upgraded.
Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte said the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee also should pursue an increase in the number of H-1B visas. Lifting the visa cap would help "make sure American companies can remain competitive in the world ... which means having highly skilled foreign workers here," he said.
In the Senate, Texas Republican John Cornyn introduced a bill last session to raise the H-1B cap to 115,000 and exempt from the annual cap any professionals with post-graduate degrees from U.S. universities. The language was not enacted, however, even after Cornyn offered to narrow it in the final days of the post-election session of Congress.
According to Cornyn spokesman Brian Walsh, H-1B visas are an important priority for Cornyn, though he is not yet sure how he will approach legislation on the issue in the new Congress. "The top priority is a comprehensive [immigration] bill, but we're still talking to other senators about what their objections might be," Walsh said.
The Sales Pitch To Congress
Not all lawmakers are thrilled about the availability of H-1B visas. Freshman Sen. James Webb, D-Va., has been among the vocal opponents of raising the cap. In a post on the PolicySoup Web log of the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce in Virginia, Webb answered a question about increasing the number of H-1Bs by characterizing the visas as a guest-worker program and saying he opposes such programs in general.
"I do not believe the myth of the tech worker shortage," Webb wrote. "The primary concern of our government in terms of immigration is to secure our border. Until that is accomplished ... guest worker programs are counterproductive."
Tech lobbying groups that want more H-1B visas are working to reform the entire program in order to ensure that the best foreign talent can easily get into the United States, and lawmakers like Webb are among their target audience.
John Palafoutas, a lobbyist for the tech group AeA, said his organization is working with members of the judiciary and labor-focused committees to educate them on the need for more visas. "A lot of Congress thinks it should be fixed," Palafoutas said. "We're hoping the committees start to deal with it as soon as possible."
Jeff Lande, a senior vice president at the Information Technology Association of America, said ITAA sees the H-1B debate as being part of the immigration agenda, though it should be more about ensuring U.S. competitiveness. "I think that is a fundamental distinction that most members understand," he said. "I'm cautiously optimistic."
But according to Kim Berry of the California-based Programmers Guild, the H-1B program has little to do with competitiveness or worker shortages. Berry said his organization favors legislation similar to a bill introduced by Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., in the 109th Congress. "We support a prevailing wage, an attempt to recruit U.S. workers before you go elsewhere, all of which was covered in Pascrell's bill," Berry said.
The guild's plan is to be on the defensive, especially on initiatives like Cornyn's measure and comprehensive immigration bills. "These bills do everything wrong and do nothing to fix the flaws that GAO and congressmen have been pointing out for a decade," he said.
High-Tech Labor Going Green
There is also a broader debate about green cards, which grant certain foreigners permanent resident status. "The big thing we want to make sure gets done -- it's not just the H-1B visas -- it's green cards," Palafoutas said. "We need access to talent that has been here six, seven or eight years on H-1B visas."
Palafoutas said green cards should be "stapled" to every foreign worker with graduate degrees from U.S. schools. He also believes the process for obtaining green cards should be expedited.
IEEE-USA, a division of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, endorses the principle of H-1B visas but believes flaws in the program must be addressed before the cap is raised. The organization does, however, support the idea of permanent citizenship through green cards.
The Programmers Guild supports neither idea. Berry said that both H-1B and green-card initiatives enable employers to bypass American-only job searches and go straight to foreign workers, who are often paid significantly lower wages.
"We can understand how [green cards] would benefit foreign workers since they would not be bound to a particular employer," Berry said. "But the green card defeats the premise of H-1B [by] 'filling jobs when no qualified Americans are available' if they are just turned loose carte blanche on the U.S. job market."
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