House Dumps H-1B Increase

Date: Friday, December 23, 2005 1:07 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

December 23, 2005 No. 1390

The H-1B and Green Card visa increase has been defeated by the House of
Representatives. This may be the first time that the cheap labor lobby has
ever lost a significant campaign to increase employment based visas.
Hopefully this will be a new trend!

Let's all celebrate that we won this battle, but keep in mind that we
haven't won the war. The cheap labor lobbyists such as CompeteAmerica make
it very clear that they will start a new campaign to push for a visa
increase by early 2006.

In the meantime, it's sure a lot of fun to read some of the whining and
griping by the shills. Here are a couple of real belly busters:

The bellyaching by immigration lawyer and lobbyist Angelo A. Paparelli made
me want to break out the rum and eggnog! Perhaps employers will get a few
lumps of coal because they aren't able to hire cheap foreign labor, but for
American workers, the House just sent them a Christmas stocking that
contains 350,000 jobs.

Before departing for the holidays, Congress left lumps of coal
in the stockings of U.S. employers and caused the economic
competitiveness of the United States to suffer a significant
setback. By failing to include employment-based immigration
provisions approved overwhelmingly by the Senate, Congress lost
a significant revenue opportunity when it deleted all immigration
provisions from the Deficit Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005.

Harris Miller's CompeteAmerica complained that it just ain't fair. Poor
crybabies! I have just two words for those "valued members" that waited for
their green cards: BYE! BYE!

"The system is disruptive to U.S. employers and our economy,
and exceedingly unfair to hard-working, valued members of the
American workforce who have waited for years to receive their
green cards, and who now may be forced to return home or seek
employment in other nations," Boyd added.

Materials in this Newsletter

1. Email from Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, "All of Specter's massive immigration
increases stripped from just-passed Budget Bill"

2. Email Mike Gildea of the Dept. of Professional Employees, AFL-CIO.
"H-1B, L-1 provisions dropped from Conference Report"

3. AFL-CIO Labor Report: "Budget Package Dumps L-1, H-1B Language;"

4. Letter from AFL-CIO to House and Senate urging that there should be no
visa increase in the Omnibus Spending Bill.

5. Whine #1
http://www.competeamerica.org/news/alliance_pr/20051221_disappoint.html
Compete America Disappointed as Immigration Provisions are Dropped from
Final Budget Reconciliation Package

6. Whine #2
http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=11157
Congress Stalemates on Yuletide Effort to Replenish Scarce Supply of
Foreign-Worker Visas

7. Whine #3
http://www.hindustantimes.com/2005/Dec/22/5922_1578883,0015002100000000.htm
Techila sunset: No extra H-1B visas

1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Monday 19DEC05 4 p.m. EST

All of Specter's massive immigration increases stripped from just-passed
Budget Bill

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN.

House passed Budget Reconciliation bill with NONE of Sen. Specter's
350,000-a-year immigration increase!

You will recall that all during November and early December, we were coming
to you regularly to ask you to fight Sen. Specter (R-PA) and his at-first
sneak effort to add this massive increase in foreign workers in the budget
bill.

You all sent thousands of faxes and made hundreds of phone calls to try to
stop Specter's assault in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

We lost. We told you to keep fighting.

We then influenced Sen. Byrd (D-WV) to introduce an amendment on the floor
of the Senate to strip out the outlandish Specter increases. You sent
thousands of faxes and made hundreds of phone calls.

We lost overwhelmingly. We told you to keep fighting.

You sent TENS OF THOUSANDS FAXES and made thousands of phone calls to
influence the Conference Committee process of resolving the terrible Senate
bill with the benign House bill. And then we alerted you that our inside
sources had tipped us off that House leaders were thinking seriously about
letting ALL of the Specter increases to stay in the final bill in exchange
for other matters entirely. You made even more phone calls.

WE WON!

The 350,000 permanent green cards for foreign workers and their families
have been erased.

The 30,000 extra H-1B temporary visas for high-tech workers have been
erased.

You created a climate on Capitol Hill that told people reading the
political tea leaves that this was just not the time to pick a fight with
the American people.

Thanks to all of you who never gave up .... who took defeat after defeat
and kept trying.

As we told you earlier, Specter's efforts were facilitated by one of his
staffers who has a close relationship with a Microsoft lobbyist. The
massive increases were the work of Microsoft and its nearly endless supply
of money to undermine American workers.

But I told you repeatedly that collectively you all truly can and do have
more power than Microsoft and more power than all of Bill Gates' dreams of
a global workforce in which all Americans have to bid for American jobs in
competition with all the rest of the world's workers.

THIS IS WHAT I WROTE YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE

"U.S. House on verge of biggest immigration disaster for American
communities and workers since 1990 Act.

"The only thing that can possibly avert this disaster is if all 124,000
NumbersUSA members take some kind of action today and Tuesday.

"We think many of these leaders may not even know what is happening because
the Budget bill is gigantic and the immigration provisions look like small
stuff and are easily overlooked.

"Please do not sit on the sidelines on this one!"

Well, you did not sit on the sidelines.

People power prevailed.

I thank you on behalf of millions of American workers and American students
whose lives would have been made so much economically worse if Microsoft
and Specter had gotten their way.

I and Dan Stein of FAIR went to Pennsylvania to do a media assault on their
Sen. Specter's efforts. Along with about 20 other organizations, we ran
saturation TV ads against the concept that America needed more foreign
workers.

And your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team worked tirelessly making sure that
staffers in all key offices truly understood the danger of what Specter was
proposing.

Thanks to all of you,

-- ROY

2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 10:07 AM

Email from Mike Gildea

H-1B, L-1 provisions dropped from Conference Report

According to Capitol Hill staffers, the Senate-approved H-1B increase
provisions have been dropped from the conference report on the Budget
Reconciliation bill. In addition, the House-passed L1 visa fee increase was
also dropped. This action is a huge success for opponents of expanding the
H-1B program and a major defeat for the army of lobbyists representing big
business, high tech, the immigration bar, the Indian lobby and so many
others.

Many thanks to all of the grassroots advocates and national organizations
that worked hard to achieve the defeat of the H-1B provision.

However, be advised that the 2006 will provide H-1B apologists and the big
business lobbyists ample opportunity to revisit the issue in one or more
venues:

During Senate committee and floor deliberations on the House-passed border
security/immigration legislationH.R. 4437 (likely to be considered by
the Senate early next year, and;

Separate, Bush-supported expansion of the low skilled guest worker visas
which may arise in both the House and Senate.

Attached you will find an abridged version of the BNA article reporting on
the elimination of the H-1B language as well as a copy of our letter to
lead House/Senate Judiciary conferees (that was individualized each to Reps
Sensenbrenner and Conyers and Sens. Specter and Leahy) on the budget bill.

Happy holidays to all. We look forward to the coming battles on the H-1B
and L-1 issues!!

3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

No. 243
Tuesday, December 20, 2005 Page AA-2
ISSN 1522-5968
Leading the News

Congress

Budget Package Dumps L-1, H-1B Language;

By a vote of 212-206, the House Dec. 19 approved a conference report on a
sweeping budget reduction bill (S. 1932), dropping language that would have
imposed new fees on employers seeking highly skilled foreign workers
through the H-1B and L-1 visa programs, and increased the H-1B visa cap.
The conference report also would reauthorize the 1996 welfare program
through 2010, updating the work participation requirements for states, but
leaving unchanged the current law's work requirements for individual
welfare recipients. The House had inserted language into the budget bill,
which was removed by Senate negotiators, that would have required a 40-hour
workweek for welfare recipients.
The conference report also includes provisions that would increase
employers' premium payments to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
(See related story in this issue. )
The Senate is expected to vote on the budget-trimming conference report
Dec. 20.
Visa Provisions Scrapped at Some Republicans' Request

Earlier this year, the House and Senate approved different provisions
involving the H-1B and L-1 visa programs as part of a broader congressional
effort to put money in federal coffers. The House version of the bill would
have imposed a new $1,500 application fee for L-1 visas, which are granted
to multinational companies to temporarily transfer foreign employees into
U.S. offices.

The Senate language would have imposed a new $750 fee on L-1 visas and a
new $500 fee on H-1B visas, which allows employers to temporarily hire
highly skilled foreign workers. Under the Senate language, the annual
65,000 cap on H-1B visas also would have increased by as much as 30,000 for
five years, a provision sought by the business community for the last three
years. Both provisions were designed to raise some $60 million in revenues
for fiscal year 2006.
The H-1B and L-1 visa provisions were dropped from the budget measure after
a handful of House Republicans who oppose increased legal immigration
threatened to oppose the conference report if it included the visa
provisions, according to a lobbyist familiar with the issue.

The lawmakers' protests came at the same time the House was debating a
controversial immigration enforcement bill (H.R. 4437). To ensure passage
of that bill, GOP leaders yanked nonbinding language calling for a new
guestworker plan at the behest of some of the same Republicans. (See
related story in this issue. )
An aide for the House Judiciary Committee would say only that House and
Senate conferees could not resolve their differences on the L-1 and H-1B
provisions, so they removed them from the conference report.
House leaders were scrambling for votes on the budget measure throughout
the weekend before the final vote, which occurred at about 6 a.m. after an
all-night session. In the end, nine Republicans joined all Democrats in
opposing the bill.

By Fawn Johnson

4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

December 7, 2005

Dear Senator/Representative:

It is our understanding that Judiciary Committee conferees of the House and
Senate will shortly meet to reconcile the differences between their
respective revenue raising proposals as contained in the Budget
Reconciliation package. In this regard and on behalf of the 22 national
unions represented by our organization, we urge you to: support the
House-approved increase in the L-1 visa fee, and; set aside any proposed
increase in the number of H-1B visas.

Our unions are adamantly opposed to any back door effort to inflate the
H-1B program. We are sincerely troubled by the fact that not a moment of
public hearings was held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on the efficacy,
or lack thereof, of this proposal. Claims by the business lobby of
widespread "shortages" of competent U.S. professional and technical workers
were, in effect, taken at face value without any attempt to ascertain their
veracity. This is the second year in succession that the Senate Judiciary
Committee has used budget-related legislation to cloak a substantial
weakening in the modest annual visa limitations and in effect obliterate
job opportunities for American workers.

Under current law, the annual statutory cap on H-1B visas is 65,000.
However, a previously approved exemption for educational institutions,
non-profits and other entities allows another 27,500 foreign workers on
average to come in to the U.S. Last year's Senate Judiciary Committee
exemption-adopted as part of the Omnibus Appropriations bill-created still
another cap loophole by adding on another 20,000 annual allotment for U.S.
educated foreign workers with advanced degrees. In addition, since the
"temporary" H-1B visa is good for up to 6 years, according to government
data some 125,000 existing visa holders renew annually.

As a result, under current law over 230,000 foreign professionals get new
or renewed guest worker visas-and American jobs-each year! The pending
Senate proposal would add another 30,000 visas annually for each of the
next five years increasing the number of yearly H-1B visas to over a
quarter of a million.

There is absolutely no economic justification for expanding the H-1B
program. Unemployment among professionals in H-1B occupations remains
high. For example, according to BLS data, joblessness for computer
scientists/systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers is at 45%,
133%, and 115% higher respectively than in 2000 the year before the tech
bust. Thus claims of labor shortages in key computer occupations are bogus
particularly when weighed against wage data. If the laws of supply and
demand are to be believed, then alleged shortages would produce significant
wage hikes as employers bid up the price for scarce labor. In fact, real
wages for computer scientists/systems analysts declined by nearly 7.5% from
2000-04 while income for IT workers in the other two categories barely grew
above the rate of inflation. None of these wage improvements are
indicative of a labor shortage.

Finally it is worth pointing out that industry apologists for off-shore
outsourcing have long proclaimed that one of the benefits of globalization
would be the creation of high end, high skilled technical and professional
jobs for workers in the U.S. These same industries now seek to contract
the number of these very same high end job opportunities that should
otherwise be available to highly skilled American workers by vastly
expanding the H-1B visa program.

As you are aware, most citizens view U.S. immigration policy as a train
wreck. It is a debacle of monumental proportions made worse by hastily
conceived proposals to expand the H-1B program at a time when so many U.S.
professionals in H-1B-impacted occupations are out of work.

The House provision to impose a first ever L-1 visa fee is not only a more
reasonable alternative to raise revenue, it also represents along with the
prohibition on employers from seeking reimbursement from the prospective
guest worker two reforms of the L-1 program that have been long advocated
by the AFL-CIO.

On behalf of the 4 million professional and technical workers that we and
our unions represent, please oppose an expansion of the H-1B program that
would in effect make it more difficult for unemployed U.S. professionals to
find work.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of our views.

Sincerely,

Paul E. Almeida
President

5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.competeamerica.org/news/alliance_pr/20051221_disappoint.html

Compete America Disappointed as Immigration Provisions are Dropped from
Final Budget Reconciliation Package

Vows Renewed Effort to Remedy Visa Crisis in 2006

Washington, D.C. - Compete America expressed its disappointment that the
Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 was approved without
the Senate-approved provision that would expand access to employment-based
(EB) and H-1B visas as a method of raising over $300 million for the
federal treasury.

"We are disappointed because the budget provisions approved by the Senate
represented a reasonable way to provide short-term and immediate relief to
the pressing problem of visa shortages," said Sandra Boyd, Vice President,
National Association of Manufacturers and Compete America Chair. "U.S.
employers cannot continue to wait while our foreign competitors are
increasing their efforts to attract some of the world's top talent - who
are often foreign students graduating from U.S. universities. Without
relief, U.S. employers will have a difficult time hiring the talent they
need to remain competitive and continue as the world leader in technology
and innovation."

Arbitrary limits on temporary H-1B visas for highly educated foreign
nationals, coupled with growing backlogs of EB visas (green cards) has
exacerbated a significant problem for U.S. employers and tens of thousands
of U.S. workers. All of the FY 2006 H-1B visas were gone in August 2005,
and the well-documented problem of green card backlogs has only worsened
this fiscal year.

"The system is disruptive to U.S. employers and our economy, and
exceedingly unfair to hard-working, valued members of the American
workforce who have waited for years to receive their green cards, and who
now may be forced to return home or seek employment in other nations," Boyd
added.

In the past few weeks alone, Compete America has received hundreds of
testimonials from legal immigrants caught in the byzantine green card
system. Doctors, engineers, teachers and other valued contributors to the
American economy and way of life have had years added to their already
extensive processing periods - often seeing their temporary work visas
expire during waits of up to seven and eight years.

"The system is broken and must be fixed. The Congress passed up an
excellent opportunity to help keep America competitive. We will expect
these issues to receive serious consideration by the appropriate committees
early next year," concluded Boyd.

Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of more than 200
corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations
concerned about legal, employment-based immigration and committed to
ensuring that the United States has the highly educated workforce necessary
to ensure continued innovation, job creation and leadership in a worldwide
economy.

6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=11157

Congress Stalemates on Yuletide Effort to Replenish Scarce Supply of
Foreign-Worker Visas

Irvine, CA 92614 December 21 2005

Before departing for the holidays, Congress left lumps of coal in the
stockings of U.S. employers and caused the economic competitiveness of the
United States to suffer a significant setback. By failing to include
employment-based immigration provisions approved overwhelmingly by the
Senate, Congress lost a significant revenue opportunity when it deleted all
immigration provisions from the Deficit Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005.

Had the revenue bill included more work visas it would have helped many
U.S. businesses that rely on highly-qualified professionals, such as
engineers, doctors, teachers and other valued knowledge workers. The
immigration provisions would have also generated an additional $300 million
in federal revenues.

Angelo A. Paparelli, managing partner of the immigration law firm Paparelli
& Partners LLP, said the defeat will make it harder to lure top foreign
talent who might consider advancing their education or careers in countries
more hospitable than the United States.

"Our dysfunctional immigration system places an unfair burden on the
nation's businesses and undermines one of the founding principles of this
country," Paparelli said. "The United States became the world leader in
innovation in large part because of the work ethic of immigrant
populations. Sadly, as our lead in the global economy begins to slip, U.S.
policy makers can't seem to move beyond politics and consider our
fundamental economic interests."

Limits on H-1B visas for foreign professional workers, along with an
increasing backlog and shortage of green cards have meant that many jobs
requiring specific skills not easily found in the United States have gone
unfilled. The caps have proved so restrictive that all of the H-1B visas
allotted for fiscal year 2006 were awarded in August 2005, two months
before the start of the new fiscal year.

Paparelli said everyone interested in this issue and who believes the
current national policy goes against the country's best interests should
start working now to build the momentum required for reconsideration in
2006.

"The issues at the heart of this matter won't suddenly go away with the
coming of the New Year; these problems will only get worse. They'll be with
us for years to come. Now is the time to let Congress know that proactive
immigration policies, and not more protectionist thinking, are the best
course for the nation to follow."

##

Recognized by several industry publications as one of the nation's top
immigration attorneys, Angelo A. Paparelli has been practicing immigration
law since 1976. Paparelli & Partners LLP, www.entertheusa.com, is a law
firm dedicated to the practice of all areas of U.S. immigration law. With
offices in Irvine, California, and New York City, the firm represents
Fortune 500 businesses

7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.hindustantimes.com/2005/Dec/22/5922_1578883,0015002100000000.htm

Techila sunset: No extra H-1B visas

S. Rajagopalan
Washington, December 20, 2005

BAD NEWS for Indian techies and the American IT bosses. US lawmakers have
scrapped a Senate-approved plan to add annually 30,000 more H-1B visas.

The proposal was deleted from a revised budget bill put to vote on Monday
after members of the House of Representatives refused to oblige the IT
industry in the face of continuing protests from domestic labour unions.

In the first sign that the plan to "recapture" unused H-1B visas from
previous years may be in jeopardy, the House had last month passed its own
version of the budget bill without proposing additional visas.

The House measure was at variance with the bill passed by the Senate
earlier to raise the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 95,000 visas with effect from
the current fiscal year.

It was then left to negotiators from the two chambers to thrash out
differences and come up with a common bill that could be sent to the
President after passage. But on Monday, the two could only agree to
disagree, thereby dropping the plan for more tech visas.

Apart from H-1B visas, another casualty of the Senate-House rift was the
proposal to allow 90,000 more employment-based green cards.

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