Wednesday, April 12, 2000 - H-1B Vote in Senate Postponed; Lamar Smith Introduces Revised H-1B Bill for Markup Wednesday
The Senate, which was scheduled to vote this week on S. 2045 (the Hatch/Abraham H-1B bill) has postponed the vote until shortly after they return from Easter recess, possibly sometime during the week of April 25th. Given the tight time schedule, they could not fit in the debate on this bill this week.We urge you to contact Senate Leadership (Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MI), Asst. Majority Leader Don Nickles (R-OK), to urge them to bring the bill for a vote as soon as possible, and continue to contact their Senators to urge them to support S. 2045 when it does come for a vote. The Congressional Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
Meanwhile, in the House, Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee, today has introduced a new version of his H-1B bill.
Employer groups, and AILA, roundly rejected the Chairman's first bill, H.R. 3814, and are analyzing the new bill. Provisions of this bill include eliminating the H-1B cap through FY 2002, but keeping most of the same restrictive provisions on the use of these visas that were in his first bill (such as tying additional visa numbers to the issuance of DOL regs from ACWIA, requiring employers to attest that they have hired more U.S. workers than the previous year and have a higher total and average payroll, eliminating part-time H-1Bs and work experience equivalencies, and a gross assets requirement of $250,000 for petitioning employers).
The bill also adds additional poison pills, such as requiring that DOL post the name and personal data of all H-1Bs on the Internet, requiring H-1Bs to receive a minimum salary of $40,000, and eliminating B-1 in lieu of H-1B.
The Chairman intends to mark up this bill in the Immigration Subcommittee on Wednesday, April 12.
AILA and the employer community continue to support H.R. 3983, the Dreier-Lofgren bill. Please contact your Representatives and urge them to cosponsor H.R. 3983 and contact House Leadership to move H.R. 3983 as soon as possible.
The Congressional Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
