1 March 2000 The Honorable Orrin Hatch Dear Senator Hatch I am writing on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – United States of America to express our concerns regarding the American Competitiveness for the 21st Century Act (S.2045), which is currently pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee. IEEE-USA believes that this bill, which would increase the current caps on visas for skilled temporary foreign guest workers (i.e. H-1B visas) to 195,000 a year (2000-2002) and exempt broad categories of guest workers from the visa requirement, is not only anti-engineer, but also anti-immigrant. The best way to build a strong technical workforce for the 21st century is through education and training of U.S. workers to ensure sustainable and rewarding careers and through permanent immigration. Yet, under-utilization of the permanent immigration visa categories (i.e. "Green Cards") continues. In 1999, only 62,000 green cards out of the 140,000 available were issued. Instead of tackling immigration reforms to utilize this preferred resource for work force development, S.2045 would greatly expand entry of non-immigrant guest workers. The addition of hundreds of thousands of highly skilled guest workers will distort the technical labor market, by reducing employer incentives to invest in education and training needed to maintain the technological skills of workers at all levels. At the same time, many foreign nationals are investing their life savings and accepting substandard wages or employment situations as guest workers in order to enter the United States in hopes of eventually adjusting to permanent immigrant status. Without immigration reforms, these would-be permanent immigrants on "indefinite temporary" visas will wait many years before they can put their feet on the path to citizenship. The provision of S.2045 that would lift the per country ceilings on permanent visas will not solve this problem---it will speed approval for a very few people currently at the front of the line, but does not address the INS processing backlog which will only get worse with the addition of hundreds of thousands of new adjustment applications. And the numbers in S.2045 will create worldwide waits for skilled immigrant visas of as much as seven years. The present bill and current law also lacks real safeguards to prevent employers from replacing U.S. engineers and other high-tech workers with guest workers – which is an attractive option if guest workers with comparable skills can be recruited at similar or lower costs than U.S. workers, do not require training investments associated with long-term employees, and have a limited ability to change employers. S.2045 does allow guest workers to find a new H-1B sponsor without leaving the country, which is an improvement, but still falls considerably short of real mobility. For these and other reasons outlined in our appended position statement on "Ensuring a Strong High-Tech Workforce in the 21st Century," IEEE-USA urges you to consider alternatives to temporary guest workers to meet the workforce needs of high tech industry. Sincerely, Merrill W. Buckley, Jr. (Note: This letter was delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 1 and mailed to each Member of the United States Senate on March 2). The Institute of Electrical
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