June 13, 2000 Representative Neil Abercrombie
Dear Representative Abercrombie: I am writing to express the very serious concerns of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – United States of America (IEEE-USA) about pending legislation calling for substantial increases in the numbers of foreign professionals who can be admitted to work "temporarily" in the United States on H-1B guest-worker visas. Rather than increasing H-1B admissions to 200,000 a year as Representatives Dreier and Lofgren have proposed, or blowing the lid off entirely as Congressmen Smith and Campbell recommend, Congress ought to fix what’s really broken -- the nation’s permanent employment-based immigration system. Legal permanent residents, not temporary guest-workers, should provide the knowledge and skills needed to meet urgent workforce demands that cannot be met through better education and improved utilization of American citizens. If there are to be upward adjustments in admissions ceilings, such increases must be accompanied by commensurate improvements in safeguards for U.S. workers, including citizens, legal permanent residents and foreign nationals who are legally allowed to work in the United States. We strongly recommend that the domestic recruitment and retention attestation requirements that were established for "H-1B dependent" employers in 1998 should apply to all petitioning employers, including educational and not-for-profit organizations. The minimum salary and English language requirements for instructional personnel in Title II and the anti-fraud provisions in Title III of the New Technology Temporary Worker Relief Act (H.R. 4227) are needed to improve the integrity of the H-1B program and to minimize the potentially adverse effects that substantial increases in admissions will have on educational and employment opportunities for citizens and legal permanent residents. And because effective program administration, enforcement and Congressional oversight is impossible without the timely availability of accurate statistical information, the new electronic transparency (reporting) requirements for employers and the Secretary of Labor in Section 202 of the bill are critically important and should be retained when the House takes up H-1B bills later this month. Sincerely, Merrill W. Buckley, Jr. The Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers - United States of America | Top of Page | Policy Log | Public Policy Forum | IEEE-USA | Last Update 13 June 2000 Permission to copy IEEE-USA policy communications is granted for non-commercial uses with appropriate attribution, unless otherwise indicated. |
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