Silicon Valley-backed legislation that would increase the number of skilled foreign workers allowed into the country is back from the dead -- again. Congressional and White House negotiators have agreed to include the bill in the omnibus budget bill that could be voted on Wednesday.
In its eight-month trip through the legislative process, the visa-expansion bill at various times has appeared doomed and on the verge of passage. Tech companies have pressed for the bill, which would temporarily raise the annual cap on the number of skilled foreign workers allowed into the country, citing a critical labor shortage.
The latest obituaries were written over the weekend, when Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) applied obscure Senate rules to derail a compromise that had already passed the House of Representatives with White House support.
But even then, Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) said the legislation was a good candidate for inclusion in a budget bill, having passed overwhelmingly in the Senate in a previous form. An hourlong meeting Monday between Lott and Abraham put the bill on the Republican's wish list, and the White House was soon on board.
The bill comes in response to what large technology companies say is a desperate shortage of programmers and engineers.
The government reached its annual limit of 65,000 H-1B visas for temporary worker several months early during the fiscal year ending 30 September. Under the proposed bill, that limit would rise to 115,000 in fiscal 1999 and in 2000, before falling to 107,500 in 2001. The visa limit would return to 65,000 in 2002.
Opponents of the bill maintain there is no shortage of qualified workers and that the visa boost is a means to suppress wages.
That case has been easier to make recently, with reports of layoffs now commonplace in the tech industry. Just Monday, the US branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers sent out a press release claiming that unemployment among engineers has climbed from less than 1 percent to 3.4 percent over the course of this year.
