H-1C Approved by Congress, Goes to President Bush

Date: Thursday, December 07, 2006 6:12 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1603 -- 12/07/2006 >>>>>

The H-1C visa has been approved by the Senate. It didn't take long either.
The H-1C is a visa that allows hospitals to import foreign nurses for
places like slums.

Hopefully this sorry saga won't be how it goes on the Skil bill or an H-1B
increase.

This is how it happened.

On December 5, 2006 Sen. Cornyn (yes, the same Senator who is pushing the
Skil bill) went on the record supporting House Bill HR 1285. The very next
day the Judiciary committee "discharged" it and WHAM!

Nurses might want to know just which one of their representatives voted to
bring in more foreign nurses. Unfortunately that won't be possible because
both the House and Senate bills were approved by unrecorded voice votes.

Our Democracy in action!

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-1285

Jun 20, 2006: This bill passed in the House of Representatives by voice
vote. A record of each representative's position was not kept.

Dec 6, 2006: This bill passed in the Senate by Unanimous Consent. A record
of each representative's position was not kept.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

http://thomas.loc.gov/

Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Routine Proceedings, pages S11239-S11373
Daily Digest
Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Reauthorization Act: Committee on
the Judiciary was discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1285 , to
extend for 3 years changes to requirements for admission of non-immigrant
nurses in health professional shortage areas made by the Nursing Relief for
Disadvantage Areas Act of 1999, and the bill was then passed, clearing the
measure for the President.

NURSING RELIEF FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS REAUTHORIZATION ACT -- (Senate -
December 05, 2006)

[Page: S11175] GPO's PDF
--- Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I would like to go on the record regarding
H.R. 1285, the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Reauthorization Act
of 2005, a bill that I support as it moves through the Senate today.

This legislation extends for 3 years the Nursing Relief for

Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999 which provides nonimmigrant visas for
nurses in areas where there is a shortage of health professionals.

Many hospitals across the Nation and, particularly in my home State of

Texas, have been experiencing great difficulties over the last several
years in attracting nurses. This shortage has been especially severe in
both inner-city neighborhoods and in rural isolated areas.

It was for this reason that in 1999 Congress passed the Nursing Relief

for Disadvantaged Areas Act. This legislation created a new H-1C temporary
worker program with 500 visas available per year for registered nurses. In
order to be eligible to petition for an alien nurse, a hospital must be
located in a health professional shortage area as designated by the
Secretary of Health and Human Services, the hospital must have at least 190
acute care beds, and it must have a certain percentage of Medicare and
Medicaid patients.

The legislation also included strong protections for American nurses by

requiring that any H-1C nurses be paid the prevailing wage and mandating
that hospitals take steps to recruit American nurses. Furthermore H-1C
nurses may not comprise more than 33 percent of a hospital's registered
nurses, and these hospitals may not contract out any H-1C nurses to other
hospitals.

The legislation before us, H.R. 1285, will reauthorize the H-1C nurse

program for 3 more years. The H-1C visa category is vital to Texas
hospitals like McAllen Medical Center and Mercy Health System, located in
Laredo, TX. The United States is facing a critical nursing shortage in the
coming years, and this small but significant program is essential to our
efforts to recruit more nurses to the United States. I believe this
legislation strikes a balance between the critical need for nurses in
certain shortage areas while protecting the wages and working conditions of
U.S. citizen nurses.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Newsletter Homepage:
http://www.JobDestruction.com/shameh1b/JobDestructionNews.htm

Support this Newsletter and www.JobDestruction.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm

To Be removed from this mailing list, reply to this
email with UNSUbSCRIBE in the subject window

Back to archives