Bill Introduced in Congress Would Double Cap on H-1B Visas (to 180,000 in 2010)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Bill Would Double Cap on H-1B Visas
A bill introduced in the U.S. Congress would double the number of immigrant worker visas available each year under the H-1B program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031403028.html

PC World
Friday, March 14, 2008; 5:19 PM

Microsoft today praised a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress that would double the number of immigrant worker visas available each year under the H-1B program.

The Innovation Employment Act, introduced by Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, late Thursday, would increase the cap in H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year. In addition, there would be no cap on H-1B applications for foreign graduate students attending U.S. colleges and studying science, technology and related fields. Currently, there's a 20,000-a-year cap on visas for graduate students in all fields.

The legislation would increase the H-1B cap to 180,000 in 2010 to 2015 if the 130,000 cap is reached the year before.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called for an increase in the H-1B visa cap while testifying before the House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee Wednesday. In recent years, the H-1B cap has been filled days -- or even the same day -- after the government opened the application period.

[MindPilot]

1. I'll bet there were no out-of-work IT people appearing before that committee

H-1B visas should be capped at zero.

[barb162]

5. You're damned right; There are highly qualified Americans

who can do those jobs.

[Duke Newcombe]

2. yes...it is soooo unfair...

...that Bill Gates and co. can't find the workers he needs...you know, the kind that (a) you can hold passports of, and (b) that will work for a percentage of what the market demands for the position. Yes, we must really fix that H-1B visa situation... :sarcasm:

Duke

[Vincardog]

3. ARe there any working people in Arizona who can show this fool the door next election cycle?

Bringing in more low wage labor to further depress our wages and send their money home is no way to help our economy.

[barb162]

4. Unbelievable that a Democrat could introduce this bill. I'm ashamed.

Americans are going jobless and there are people here who can do those jobs. Gates is laying off Americans and importing more and more foreign labor, when he isn't actually sending jobs offshore. Selling out American workers is not a part of the Democratic Party agenda!

[spindrifter]

6. One of my pet peeves is the

way we approach our employment needs. What is wrong with providing training in places like Detroit that is similar to the programs in India, Malaysia and so forth so we can train American kids to fill these needs?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. They should follow the model of Cecil Williams at Glide in SF...

...they do offer computer training to people who need jobs.

The Gates rhetoric about how we are turning away the best and brightest overseas is based largely on what he's paying these folks.

We're not supposed to know that. We're just supposed to think that there's no one qualified to do the work in the U.S., and that even if someone is willing, they are too stupid or incapable to be trained.

One one hand, you have the Bill Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates charitable organization.

On the other, you have the Bill "Double The Visas" Gates version.

Same guy. Amazing.

[VP505]

8. Check out this article on H-1B Visa Increases From SF Chronicle.

(snip)

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is personally leading the industry's charge for more H-1B visas. Yet Microsoft asked its contract software developers earlier this year to take a seven-day furlough, to save money. And the firm admits that its salaries are not keeping up with inflation. Again, none of this squares with Microsoft's claims of a labor shortage.

The hidden agenda here is industry access to cheap labor. Several university studies and two congressionally commissioned reports have shown that H-1B visa holders are paid less than Americans. Though the law requires H-1B holders to be paid the "prevailing wage," the definition of that term is filled with numerous gaping loopholes, as a 2002 congressional report showed. Yet Congress added even further loopholes in legislation in 2004. Just think tax code, and you'll understand what I mean.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/12/07/EDGOULJ5BC1.DTL

[AzDar]

9. Not just NO..... HELL NO.

:grr:

Call your Reps.....