Technology groups hailed the Senate Judiciary Committee’s passage of...
Technology groups hailed the Senate Judiciary Committee’s passage of an immigration bill with provisions that would make more H-1B visas available to foreign high-skilled workers. The committee approved the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Act (S-744) by a 13-5…
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vote Tuesday. The legislation includes a package of amendments offered by Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that would encourage companies’ use of H-1B visas to attract and retain more high-skilled workers. CEA President Gary Shapiro said the committee’s passage of the Hatch/Schumer amendments “will provide a robust temporary visa program that will address the high-skilled worker shortage in the United States; creating more U.S. jobs and advancing innovation.” The Hatch/Schumer amendments will “benefit our economy, our country and our future by balancing our industry’s desire to hire homegrown talent with our need to bring the best and brightest to our nation,” said TechAmerica Senior Vice President-Federal Government Affairs Kevin Richards. Telecommunications Industry Association President Grant Seiffert said the committee’s vote is a “very important step” toward modernizing the U.S. high-skilled immigration system. But AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement following the vote the H-1B amendments are “unambiguous attacks on American workers. Hatch’s amendments change the bill so that high tech companies could functionally bring in H-1B visa holders without first making the jobs available to American workers. Hatch’s amendments would mean that American corporations could fire American workers in order to bring in H-1B visa holders at lower wages,” he said.