Sham-bliss Bill and Feinstein's Frankenstein

Date: Sunday, September 21, 2003 1:34 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) chairs the same Senate Judiciary
Committee's immigration subcommittee that held the recent biased
hearing on H-1B. The Chambliss bill is just another variation of Mica's
L-1 visa reform, and it's just as useless. Politicians are doing
everything they can to deflect attention away from the substantive
reforms contained in the DeLauro bill.

This article contains a real gem. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was
one of the creators of H-1B and was one of the key players that coerced
Clinton to sign the 2000 increase. Now she seems to be having second
thoughts about the monster she created:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said jobless tech workers
have told her they were replaced by foreigners working for
one-third the amount they had been paid.

"It's not easy to hear someone say, 'This is a program that
you helped create, and I'm losing my job because of it
,' " Feinstein said.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/0903/17visa.html?urac=n&urvf=10638983827500.9234781887184209

Chambliss bill targets visa 'loophole'

By JULIA MALONE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said Tuesday he plans to
introduce legislation to restrict a visa program that is increasingly
being used by the tech industry to import foreign workers.

"Some companies have abused this visa," Chambliss told a Senate
hearing, referring to the L-1 visa. As a result, "American workers have
been displaced, and this must stop."

Chambliss joins lawmakers from both parties and houses who have already
proposed measures to tighten the L-1 visa, but his backing is crucial
because he chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration
subcommittee. The Georgian said he expects a bill to pass by early next
year.

The once-obscure L-1 visa was designed to allow international companies
to transfer specially skilled employees from abroad for temporary
assignments in America.

However, it has come into the spotlight recently as a handful of
companies, most based in India, have set up offices in the United
States and brought in thousands of low-cost tech workers who are
contracted out to U.S. companies.

Chambliss said his bill would "close that loophole" by allowing L-1
visas only for workers who have a prior relationship with the company
where they will be performing the services.

The Georgian spoke at a Senate Judiciary hearing on whether to expand
the caps for another controversial temporary worker program, the H-1B
visa.

Set up to increase the supply of skilled workers, including medical
professionals, fashion models and tech workers, the H-1B was expanded
greatly three years ago, under pressure from the tech industry.
Congress passed a series of temporary increases in the annual cap,
which went from 65,000 to 195,000.

Unless Congress acts, that higher level will expire at the end of this
month, and the program will drop to its previous level.

With the collapse of the dot-com bubble, more than 400,000 tech workers
have lost their jobs, and many American workers are protesting that
they are being replaced by foreign workers.

Earlier this month, Harris Miller, president of the Information
Technology Association of America, said congressional allies have
advised him they won't be able to take action on the visas before Oct.
1.

Unemployment for engineers reached an all-time high of 7 percent in the
first quarter of this year, John W. Steadman, president-elect of the
Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers-USA, told the Senate
panel Tuesday. He said the H-1B program contributed to the joblessness.

Steadman asked the senators to allow the visa program to fall to the
65,000 annual level.

Industry representatives countered that they continue to need the
technical skills of foreigners. Officials from manufacturing giant
Ingersoll-Rand Corp. as well as from the computer chip company Intel
Corp. said not enough Americans are studying advanced sciences and math
at universities, so they are forced to hire foreign-born workers.

Stephen Yale-Loehr, an attorney representing the American Immigration
Lawyers Association, proposed that lawmakers set a new cap at 115,000
H-1B visas.

Several senators said they were open to making accommodations for
industry, even as others said they were worried about the effects on
constituents.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said jobless tech workers have told
her they were replaced by foreigners working for one-third the amount
they had been paid.

"It's not easy to hear someone say, 'This is a program that you helped
create, and I'm losing my job because of it,' " Feinstein said.

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