Sen. Cornyn's Perfidy

Date: Friday, December 08, 2006 4:32 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1605 -- 12/08/2006 >>>>>

The commentary by Roy Beck is followed by some first hand accounts of
activists who are making the phone calls. At this point we must keep the
phones ringing in DC because the next 12 hours is crucial.

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Date: Friday 8DEC06 1:30 a.m. EST

The Short Story of Sen. Cornyn's Perfidy Against American Skilled Workers

Americans had been assured that the clock had already run out on this kind
of sneak-pass play. Congress was supposed to be in town this week just to
pass a Continuing Resolution to keep the federal government funded.

But tech industry lobbyists -- desperate to continue to hold down wages
with foreign labor -- have stopped the legislative clock.

A near-football team of Microsoft blockers, tackles and fleet-footed
lobbyists (10 of them!) roamed the Senate hallways this week looking for a
way score using a last-minute, rule-breaking, end-of-Congress gambit.

Many times in recent years, Microsoft and other tech lobbyists have sneaked
through major increases in H-1B visas just as Congress was leaving town.

Since being publicly embarrassed in the late 1990s by debating the merits
of this kind of legislation publicly, Congress has declined to pass these
H-1B visa increases in the true light of day, with standard debate and
using normal procedures.

But nearly all inside staffers told us they had received assurances from
congressional leaders that no sneak play would be allowed this year.

On Tuesday, Senate staffers were stunned to see Sen. Cornyn suddenly emerge
as the person willing to bring shame on himself by carrying the Robber
Barons' water and force his pet project ahead of all others.

We sent an email to all our members last Friday, asking for steady pressure
on Senators to make sure they knew public sentiment in case something like
this happened.

Then Tuesday afternoon, we got word that Cornyn was trying to ram his bill
onto the Senate floor. We went to all of our members in about a dozen
states with Senators who often fight for American workers against foreign
labor importation. We stirred up a flurry of phone calls.

We were pleased that by late Tuesday, a number those Senators had placed
"holds" on Cornyn's bill. But those holds tend to have power to only slow
the process down for awhile and can be overcome if Senate leadership
decides to do so. The word we had late Wednesday was that the "holds" were
breaking as Microsoft's lobbyists gathered more support.

You are calling the congressional leaders to just stop the bill from moving
to the floor and to concentrate instead on spending bills.

THANKS,

-- ROY

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Results of phone calls on H1-Bs

Senator Kyl:
Q. What is Senator Kyl's position to be on Cornyn's "dark of the night"
attempt to ramrod an H-1B increase?
A. Are you calling on behalf of any organization?
A. Yes, the org's name is Sandra. I only have one vote and no campaign
donations.
"Very low likelihood of this passing, and in the future Senator Kyl will
take into careful consideration such meansures."
A. You haven't answered my question. Kyl has been a consistent supporter
of H-1Bs
A. Senator hasn't made a decision and is still considering.
Q. How did the Senator vote on the H1-C two days ago?
A. I'm not finding a record.
Q. It was HR1285--on December 5.
A. Oh, that was a unanimous voice vote.
Q. So does that mean Senator Kyl voted for it?
A. I can check, just a moment........it was a unanimous voice vote

Senator McCain:
Q What is McCain's position on Cornyn's "dark of the night" attempt to
ramrod an H-1B increase?
A. He hasn't yet taken a position.

Senator Grassley (Casey Mills)
Asked for Casey but aide couldn't find him
Q. Does Grassley support H1-B increases?
A He doesn't know.
I gave him a rundown as if I were Debbie--nursing shortage is artificially
created. Grassley probably voted for H1-C, etc.
I retrained for a job after 20 years to go into nursing, and now find wages
are kept low by foreign nurses.
A. He'll pass concerns along.

Senator Dorgan
Express thanks to Senator Dorgan for opposing H1-Bs.

Sandra

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I called Cornyn's office just now - male staffer got really annoyed when I
asked him if Senator Coryn supports displacing well-educated American
workers with Foreign H-1B Visa holders. He immediately passed me off to a
voice mail box of a staffer who handles immigration matters. (Yes, I know
H-1B's are so-called "non-immigrant Visas" but we all know most of these
people end up staying here -)

Of course the staffer did not pick up his phone - but the staffer's name is
Landon Bell. Why not ring up Senator Corn-Hole's office and ask for Landon
Bell, and ring Landon's bell a bit?

Gerard

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I called Cornyn's office just now - stated my opposition of course. The
person I spoke with said that Cornyn was trying to get his bill introduced
today, and he was not sure if it would be voted on today.

Hopefully Cornyn fails. I think he is getting our message, but I also
think he does not care.

Roy

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Maybe you all have different information that I just obtained from both
Senator Pete Domenici's office (Republican) and Senator Jeff Bingaman's
office (Democrat) -- both of New Mexico. But both of their offices claim
that Skil Bill "Access to High Skilled Foreign Workers" S 2691 has NOT left
committee yet and thus cannot be voted on yet. (It is certainly possible
that you all have different or better information than was conveyed to me
but this is what I obtained.)

Domenici's office staff person couldn't tell me which side of the fence he
was on as he hasn't "made a press release" yet. And, as long as it is in
committee he apparently doesn't voice an opinion.

Senator Bingaman's office staff also told me that he had not expressed an
opinion to him on his position on the bill. The young, female staff woman
who answered the DC phone seemed STUNNED when she pulled up the bill and
started to read parts of it. She thought they'd have to take some kind of
special test to get into the USA for these jobs -- no. I only wish she
were casting a vote as I know how she'd vote! Again, she told me that
the bill was not out of committee YET and the Senators are going home
tomorrow afternoon. They are doing "yesterday morning's" work tonight or
some such backward thinking. There has been no floor debate on the bill so
the staff claimed would mean there will NOT be a vote on the bill tonight.
No one would guarantee me that NO voting would take place tomorrow but did
say it was UNlikely.

Finally, when I got to the staff woman in DC she was a bit surprised
because someone had called her on the bill from one of the Senator's New
Mexico offices. (A bit strange unless it was my calling the Senator's 800
number which connected me some place in New Mexico and they called the DC
office for information regarding my inquiry.)

(BE careful when you call, however, one Bingaman's staff males that I
spoke with tried to give me the WRONG Senate Bill number reference. He
asked "This is Senate Bill 2626?" I said "The one I am calling on is
"Senate Bill 2691 "Access to High Skilled Foreign Workers" so unless the
bill has been reassigned a number that I don't know about -- I am calling
on the Skil Bill "Access to High Skilled Foreign Workers.")

Oh, yeah! the woman from Bingaman's office said "Oh, THAT's a
Republican sponsored bill!"

Cynthia

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I, too, phoned Cornyn's office and the person I spoke with kept insisting
that the H-1B's had to be paid the same as Americans and then he said the
senator wants to make America more competitive by bringing in skilled
workers. I directed him to Norm's article in the San Francisco paper and to
the Programmers Guild. I asked him how it would make our nation more
competetive to bring in a worldwide supply of cheaper labor to take our
jobs. Silence.

LC Evans
http://lcevans.com
Jobless Recovery
A satirical novel about American job losses

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