Judiciary Hearing on H-1B Increase
Judiciary Hearing on H-1B Increase
Date: Monday, October 17, 2005 8:44 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
October 17, 2005 No. 1348
The Senate Judiciary will meet on 10/20 to discuss the increase in the number of H-1Bs by 60,000 per year. This newsletter contains several important pieces of information if you decide to do something about it.
The H-1B increase will probably be discussed on 10/20. Go to this link for more info, but they don't mention what their itinerary is. All the Washington DC insiders know that H-1B will be on the table, so it's sort of funny that they keep it such a deep, dark secret.
http://judiciary.senate.gov/meeting_notice.cfm?id=1645
"Executive Business Meeting"
On Tuesday, October 18 there is a hearing on immigration reform. In Washington DC lingo that means they will talk about amnesty and guest-worker visas. The hearings are broadcast on streaming video but they aren't saved, so watch it and record it when you can.
http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=1634
"Comprehensive Immigration Reform II "
Senate Judiciary Committee
Full Committee
DATE: October 18, 2005
TIME: 09:30 AM
ROOM: 226 Dirksen
OFFICIAL HEARING NOTICE / WITNESS LIST:
NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing on "Comprehensive Immigration Reform II" for
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen
The Chamber of Commerce will be there. Count on them to support the idea that we need a massive guest-worker bill. They have endorsed the McCain/Kennedy bill.
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=leg_legislationlist661e
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Seminar/Conference
Immigration Issues and Employment
U.S. Chamber of Commerce will sponsor a discussion of immigration restructuring efforts and proposals to revamp the system, including legislative proposals, the economic impact of immigration and how to create a system that would provide an adequate number of workers needed for continued economic growth in the United States.
Location: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1615 H St. N.W.
Date: 8:30 a.m. (October 18, 2005)
Note: For further information or to register online: http://events.uschamber.com/conference/
Contents of this Newsletter
FAIR Legislative Update October 17, 2005
Immediate Action Needed to Stop Judiciary Committee Proposal to Increase H-1B Visas
Has sample phone and fax messages you can send.
AFL-CIO Update Sample Letter
It's a very good letter, although you may want to delete references to unions if you aren't in one.
SUMMARY OF HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE ACTION
More background information from the AFL-CIO
Senate Judiciary Contact Info
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FAIR Legislative Update October 17, 2005
Immediate Action Needed to Stop Judiciary Committee Proposal to Increase H-1B Visas
In a bizarre twist of logic, the Senate Judiciary Committee is looking to the H-1B visa program as a way to help solve the federal deficit.
This Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to consider allowing 60,000 more H-1B visas to be issued per year for the next five years. These visas would be in addition to the current 65,000 a year cap and the 20,000 exemptions approved in last year's omnibus spending bill.
The proposal, backed by Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), authorizes 60,000 new H-1B visas and a new $500 fee, which Congress expects to raise $30 million annually to off-set spending in other parts of the federal budget.
The H-1B program is riddled with fraud, displaces American workers, and discourages Americans from pursuing careers in the high-tech industry. (Read our H-1B issue brief for more information.)
Our best shot at defeating this is on the committee level. If approved by the committee, the H-1B increase will be incorporated into larger budget legislation, making it very difficult to defeat.
Take action today to fight this outrageous proposal!
If your senator is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (click here to find out), please call before Thursday and ask your senator to vote against the proposal.
If your senators are not on the committee, you can still help by contacting committee members and voicing your opposition to the H-1B increase. If they ask why you're calling their office, tell them that as a member of the Judiciary Committee, the decision they make affects the entire nation, not just people from their state.
Call the capitol switchboard (202-224-3121) and ask to be connected or find your senators phone number here on our web site.
Sample phone message:
"I recently learned that there is a proposal in the Senate to create 60,000 new H-1B visas as part of this year's budget process. I'm calling to express my strong opposition to this plan and to urge the senator to oppose it. The H-1B program is severely flawed and harmful to American workers, particularly those seeking employment in the high-tech sector. I understand that the Senate is considering raising the cap as a way of raising additional funds to help shrink the deficit, but this is not a viable solution. Balancing the buget on the backs of ever-growing numbers of displaced American workers is absurd. If Congress needs to raise additional funds, perhaps you could raise the fees charged for existing visas, including L visas. Such a solution would be much better for workers and the US economy."
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Bush Administration Set to Testify on Immigration Overhaul
After months of delay, the Bush Administration is expected to outline its latest plan to rewrite immigration laws in favor of more guestworkers this Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Comprehensive Immigration Reform II." Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff and Labor Secretary Chao are slated to testify at the hearing, which will likely focus on competing guestworker bills offered by Sens. McCain and Kennedy and Sens. Cornyn and Kyl. The hearing will take place this Tuesday at 9:30AM in room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
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by Mike Gildea - AFL-CIO Profe
EFFORT UNDERWAY TO INCREASE H-1B VISAS: GRASSROOTS ALERT
DPE has been advised that a Senate Judiciary staff proposal is making the rounds that proposes to nearly double the number of annual H-1B visas available. They would do this by going back to 1991 and sweeping up an estimated 300,000 unused H-1B visas and allow them to be used at a rate of 60,000 each year for the next 5 years. Full Judiciary committee markup is scheduled for Thursday -- 10/20.
The proposal is being touted as "the Chairmans (Sen. Specter) mark" as the committees revenue raising piece of a broader Senate budget reconciliation package. (increased revenues would be realized from additional H-1B visa fees generated by the larger number of visas available). Sen Kennedys immigration staff--who heretofore has been awful on the guest worker visa issue--also has a hand in this back door initiative. Apparently, Sen Leahy, Dewine and Brownback have also signed off.
Push back is said to be coming from some of the conservative GOP members of the committee (Grassley/Sessions) who dont want to increase H-1B visas. They are attempting to connect up with Feinstein on a counter proposal similar to what the House Judiciary Committee did two weeks ago (See attached summary).
DPE has a call into Feinsteins office and will be contacting other Democratic staff. A copy of our draft letter, which was faxed up to Senate staff on Friday is also attached. The AFL-CIO is reaching out for Specter to try and dissuade him from moving forward on the H-1B piece and instead go with the House alternative.
Any connections advocates can make with Judiciary members would be most helpful. Unless these members hear from home state constituents against the proposal, they will likely support it. Calls from constituents Specter and Leahy are vitally important A list of Judiciary staff contacts is attached.
AFL-CIO Update Sample Letter
Dear Senator
It is our understanding that the Judiciary Committee may soon consider a staff proposal related to budget reconciliation savings that would in effect nearly double the number of annual H-1B visas available in order to generate increased fee revenue to the U.S. Treasury.
The 22 national unions represented by our organization are adamantly opposed to any back door effort to inflate the H-1B program. We urge you to reject it in favor of a more reasonable alternative to raise revenue through increased visa fees.
Under current law, the annual statutory cap on H-1B visas is 65,000. However, a previously approved exemption allows another 27,500 foreign workers on average to come in to the U.S. Then last year the Judiciary Committee-as part of the Omnibus Appropriations bill-created still another cap loophole by adding on another 20,000 annual allotment for U.S. educated foreign workers with advanced degrees. In addition, since the "temporary" H-1B visa is good for up to 6 years, according to government data some 125,000 existing visa holders renew annually.
As a result, under current law over 230,000 foreign professionals get new or renewed guest worker visas--and American jobs--each year! The new staff proposal would add an additional 60,000 visas annually for each of the next five years increasing the number of yearly H-1B visas to nearly 300,000.
There is absolutely no economic justification for expanding the H-1B program. Unemployment among professionals in H-1B occupations remains high. For example, according to BLS data, joblessness for computer scientists/systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers is at 45%, 133%, and 115% higher respectively than in 2000--the year before the tech bust. Thus claims of labor shortages in key computer occupations are bogus particularly when weighed against wage data. If the laws of supply and demand are to be believed, then alleged shortages would produce significant wage hikes as employers bid up the price for scarce labor. In fact, real wages for computer scientists/systems analysts declined by nearly 7.5% from 2000-04 while income for IT workers in the other two categories barely grew above the rate of inflation. None of these wage improvement are indicative of a labor shortage.
Finally it is worth pointing out that industry apologists for off-shore outsourcing have long proclaimed that one of the benefits of globalization would be the creation of high end, high skilled technical and professional jobs for workers in the U.S. These same industries now seek to contract the number of these very same high end job opportunities that should otherwise be available to highly skilled American workers by vastly expand the H-1B visa program.
We urge you to oppose any action that would have the effect of making it more difficult for unemployed U.S. professionals to find work.
In the alternative, we commend to you the proposal (H.R.3648) sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner and recently approved by his committee that would impose a base visa fee of $1,500 on the L-1 visa and prevent employers from requiring their visa worker to reimburse them for the fee payment. These are two reforms long advocated by those organizations that represent professional and technical workers. This coupled with any needed additional H-1B fee increase should be sufficient to raise the revenues anticipated from the Senate Judiciary Committee envisioned by the budget reconciliation process.
On behalf of the 4 million professional and technical workers that we and our unions represent, please oppose expansion of the H-1B program. Thank you in advance for your consideration of our views.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida
President
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SUMMARY OF HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE ACTION
GUEST WORKER VISAS-The DPE backed GOP efforts in the House Judiciary Committee to approve H.R. 3648 that would implement two long sought labor reforms in the L-1 intra-company transfer vise program. The underlying bill was designed to meet the committee's responsibility to find $60 million in federal savings obligated the Republican leadership's fy 2006 budget agreement,
By way of background, L-1 visas are granted to multi-national companies to allow them to "temporarily" transfer foreign executives, managers, and professional workers with specialized skills to their U.S. subsidiaries for up to five years. However, unlike the more widely used H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign workers, the L-1 program lacks any reasonable restraints or limits. For example, there are no safeguards to protect U.S. workers from being displaced or to mitigate abuse of foreign workers from abuse. The program also lacks any numerical limitation on the annual issuance of L-1 visas and visa fee requirements are almost non-existent. H.R. 3648 would impose a new $1,500 application fee for L-1 visas and prevent companies from seeking reimbursement from the visa holders. The DPE had testified in the House and Senate in 2003-04 in support of a long list of L-1 reforms. The testimony can be found on the DPE website at http://www.dpeaflcio.org/policy/letters/ltr_tst_2004_02_04.htm
In a rare about-face in party politics, Democrats on the committee sided with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in opposing the bill while Republicans sided with organized labor in supporting it. Ranking Democrat John Conyers (D-Mich.) referred to a letter from the Chamber protesting the proposed fee increase. " Sensenbrenner countered with letters of support from the AFL-CIO, the federation's Department of Professional Employees, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Conyers said the bill should be rejected on grounds that the overarching Republican budget agreement--of which the L-1 provision was a small part--is unfair to taxpayers.
In covering the story and DPE's work on the issue, the Bureau of National Affairs Weekly Labor Report reported that:
labor groups said the bill provided an opportunity to examine flaws in high-skill guestworker programs such as the L-1 and H-1B programs. "We feel it's a step in right direction," said Michael Gildea, executive director of the AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees. "It adds an L-1 fee where we haven't had one."
But, Gildea added, the bill would not stop employers from looking to the L-1 visa for filling jobs with foreign workers. "Companies that can afford to pay $2,000 or more will continue to buy them up," he told BNA.
The letter from the AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees lashed out at both the L-1 and H-1B visa programs. "[C]orporations are allowed to bring in tens of thousands of foreigners, principally from India, to work in the U.S at bargain basement rates for periods of five, six, seven years or longer," the Sept. 19 letter said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is now considering counterpart budget reconciliation proposals dealing with visa fees.
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Senator Staffer Contact Info
DEMOCRATS
Joseph Biden (DE) Louisa Terrell 202-224-5042
202-224-0139 FAX
Richard Durbin (IL) Joe Zogby 202-224-2152
202-228-0400 FAX
Russell Feingold (WI) Lara Flint 202-224-5323
202-224-2725 FAX
Dianne Feinstein (CA) Monserrat Miller 202-224-3841
202-228-3954 FAX
Edward Kennedy (MA) Esther Olavarria 202-224-4543
202-224-2417 FAX
Herb Kohl (WI) Nate Jones 202-224-7703
202-224-9516 FAX
Patrick Leahy (VT) Tara Magner 202-224-4242
202-224-3479 FAX
Charles Schumer (NY) Ariell Goren 202-224-6542
202-228-3027 FAX
REPUBLICANS
Sam Brownback (KS) Bryan Clark 202-224-6521
202-228-1265 FAX
Tom Coburn (OK) Matt Blackburn 202-224-5754
202-224-6008 FAX
John Cornyn (TX) Reid O'Connor 202-224-2934
202-227-2856 FAX
Mike DeWine (OH) Casey Yerkes 202-224-2315
202-224-6519 FAX
Senator Staffer Contact Info
REPUBLICANS (CONT'D)
Lindsey Graham (SC) Matthew Rimkunis 202-224-5972
202-224-3808 FAX
Charles Grassley (IA) Kathy Nuebel Kovarik 202-224-3744
202-224-6020 FAX
Orrin Hatch (UT) Terry Barber 202-224-5251
202-224-6331 FAX
Jon Kyl (AZ) Michael Dougherty 202-224-4521
202-224-2207 FAX
Jeff Sessions (AL) Cindy Hayden 202-224-4124
202-224-3149 FAX
Arlen Specter (PA) Juria Jones 202-224-4254
202-228-1229 FAX
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