Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - House to vote again on more tech visas
BY DAVID L. WILSON Mercury News Washington BureauWASHINGTON -- Members of the House of Representatives will try again today to increase the number of visas available for foreign workers with high-tech skills.
An increase that went into effect last year hasn't met demand, and a similar bill to boost the number of visas available died last summer. The cap on what are known as H-1B temporary visas -- designed to allow employment in the United States of foreign workers with special technical abilities -- rose from 65,000 to 115,000 in 1999, but all the available visas had been handed out by June, almost four months before the end of the fiscal year. This latest proposal would temporarily increase the cap to 200,000 annually for three years. The Senate is already considering a bill introduced last month that would raise that cap to 195,000 during the same period.
``The high-tech industry faces an urgent shortage of workers with backgrounds in math, science, and engineering, and increasing the number of qualified people who can come into the United States is an excellent way to address this need immediately,'' said Laura Ipsen, director of government relations for networking giant Cisco Systems Inc.
But labor groups say U.S. corporations want to hire cheaper, less experienced workers from overseas, and point out that under the visas, it's very difficult for workers to change employers. They charge that means the companies don't have to worry about their skilled workers getting picked off by another company or demanding raises. The high-tech industry claims, however, that it actually costs companies more to fill a job through an H-1B visa, and that it only turns to such methods when U.S. workers are unavailable.
``Over the long term, Cisco is committed to increasing the pool of high-tech workers by expanding educational opportunities. But right now, this legislation would help sustain the growth of the technology industry and the U.S. economy, providing more jobs for Americans,'' Ipsen said.
Both the House and Senate bills are similar to legislation introduced last August providing a cap of 200,000 over three years. That bill died, and insiders say the chances of either of these measures becoming law are not good.
The previous increase was the result of a long-running battle with the White House, which was worried about costing any American a job, an issue that will likely become an ever more sensitive issue as the November election looms. Sources with ties to the White House have recently suggested that it's possible, given the extremely low unemployment rate, that a modest adjustment in the cap would be tolerable. But nearly doubling the cap, as the bills propose, is likely to be viewed as an opportunity by the White House to score points with labor by opposing such a substantial increase.
Even so, the House bill has picked up sponsors from both sides of the aisle, including Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat, and Thomas M. Davis, a Virginia Republican. Two California legislators have also signed on: San Jose Democrat Zoe Lofgren and David Dreier, a Republican from Southern California.
``The reality of the Information Age is that prosperity is fueled by brainpower and people, not steel and machines. Our technology boom has created an unprecedented demand for highly skilled workers,'' said Dreier. ``In the short-term, we cannot let the technology labor shortage undermine our economic boom.''
Lofgren agreed, saying, ``Because this is a very carefully crafted measure, it will have very broad bipartisan support.''
