Weiner bill to import hotties
Weiner bill to import hotties
Date: Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:42 AM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1877 -- 6/12/2008 >>>>>
A few of the cynics on this mailing list will probably accuse me of finally
selling out the cause because I am endorsing a bill that increases the number
of nonimmigrant workers. The Weiner bill is an awesome idea because it
increases the number of beautiful foreign ladies that can come to the U.S. for
employment. Folks, this newsletter isn't a joke, the bill is for real! Read on
for details.
Remember when Bill Gates argued that if we don't allow more H-1Bs into the
country Microsoft will move engineering jobs overseas? Similar arguments are
made for allowing more cute girls into the U.S.
"If there are girls that we can't get into the United States, the
client is going to take that business elsewhere," said Corinne
Nicolas, president of Trump Model Management. "The market is
calling for foreign girls."
Weiner's bill will move fashion models out of the H-1B category, which is in
short supply, and into the P visa category, which has no yearly quota and
offers unlimited yearly extensions. P visas are used mostly for entertainers
and athletes. It has an anchor baby provision that allows spouses and
unmarried children to accompany the P Visa holder.
Weiner's bill effectively increases the number of available H-1B visas because
1,000 fashion models will no longer affect the yearly cap on H-1B.
Less fashion models on H-1Bs means more visas that can be used to import
engineers and programmers.
All of this sounds too good to be true (the more beautiful women part at
least) so I did some research to find out if there is any truth to the two
articles included below. The prospect of importing beautiful women into the
U.S. got me so excited I worked throughout the evening to verify the existence
of the bill (which explains why I'm sending it so late, Oink!
Oink!).
Here it is:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-4080
H.R. 4080: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to establish a
separate nonimmigrant classification for fashion models
Unfortunately the bill doesn't have any co-sponsors so it's unclear if
Congress is going to support it. When time permits, be sure to call your
representative and ask why he/she hasn't signed on as a co-sponsor. You might
even ask Hillary Clinton if she will sponsor the Weiner bill in the Senate
(see first article to understand the joke).
Click on the link to the nydailynews article to see some pictures of the
hotties that might use the new P visa category. After seeing those pictures
you will probably agree that sacrificing an additional 1,000 programming jobs
is a price worth paying!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/06/11/2008-06-11_weiner_bring_on_hotties_from_overseas-1.html
Weiner: Bring on hotties from overseas
BY JO PIAZZA and DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Wednesday, June 11th 2008, 11:54 PM
Agostini/Getty
Model Carolyn Murphy was made in the USA....
Izquierdo/AP
... while hottie Gisele Bundchen is from Brazil.
Xanthos for News
Rep. Anthony Weiner
Give me your torrid, your pure, your totally smokin' foreign babes.
Feast your eyes on the latest immigration push by Rep. Anthony Weiner, a
likely 2009 mayoral contender who has introduced a bill in Congress to make it
easier for foreign fashion models to get visas to work in the U.S.
Apparently, the 43-year-old Weiner - now going steady with Hillary Clinton
aide and Vogue hottie Huma Abedin - thinks New York needs more professional
catwalkers from Europe, Asia and other fabulous places.
"From Fashion Week to our vibrant publishing industry to the many designers
that call New York City home, fashion is a vital part of our economy that
drives thousands of jobs," Weiner told the Daily News.
Staffers insist Weiner is mostly trying to redress a flaw in the nation's
immigration policies. Models must compete against computer geeks, doctors and
other brainiacs for H-1B visas, generally reserved for the "highly
specialized."
Demand has outstripped the 165,000 available H-1B's, leaving many models out
in the cold.
Some red-blooded American fashionistas yesterday accused Weiner of trying to
make life harder for American beauties by easing the way for imports.
"Forget trying to bring in new meat," said ex-supermodel Janice Dickinson, who
hosts the "Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" reality show. "Let's divvy it up
between the Americans on American soil, please."
Other fashion bigwigs argued Weiner is right - designers and photographers
won't just hire American. They'll more likely take job-producing shoots to
another country.
The highest-paid model in the world is Brazilian Gisele Bundchen, who made
$33 million in 2007, compared to the $5 million earned by top American model
Carolyn Murphy.
"If there are girls that we can't get into the United States, the client is
going to take that business elsewhere," said Corinne Nicolas, president of
Trump Model Management. "The market is calling for foreign girls."
Weiner's bill, first reported by Politico.com, would send models sashaying out
of the prized H-1B category of visas and over to the easier-to-get P visas,
mostly for entertainers and athletes.
Applicants can't be just another pretty face, though. In language that only
Washington bureaucrats could dream up, the legislation spells out the
requirements for America's next top non-American models.
An applicant must be "a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability"
seeking to enter the U.S. temporarily "to perform fashion modeling services
that involve events or productions which have a distinguished reputation."
In other words, no pole dancers.
The supermodels don't have to worry, though. The Gisele Bundchens and Naomi
Campbells of the world already qualify for platinum-plated O-1 visas - set
aside for foreigners of "extraordinary ability," such as Nobel Prize winners.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/10997.html
Weiner bill looks out for models
By: Ryan Grim
June 11, 2008 07:30 AM EST
Comprehensive immigration reform may have eluded the 110th Congress, but House
Democrats are still hoping to help two groups of workers -- fashion models and
computer geeks -- who are usually linked only in implausible online fantasies.
Under current immigration policy, models coming to the United States for a
photo shoot or an event -- regardless of how short the stay -- compete with
high-tech workers for precious H-1B visas. But under a bill that cleared the
Judiciary Committee last week, the models would be moved into a separate
immigration category, freeing up more H-1B slots for the much-needed nerds.
The models and the high-tech workers were hastily lumped together in a 1991
immigration package. Back then, it didn t much matter: The number of available
H-1B visas was greater than the number of qualified applicants seeking them.
But those days are gone. In recent years, there have been as many as 165,000
applicants annually for the category s 85,000 possible spots. As the
competition for the visas has stiffened, the models have been squeezed out.
According to the committee report accompanying the bill, the government issued
between 614 and 790 visas to models in each year between 2000 and 2005. But
the number began falling after that, and it was all the way down to 349 in
fiscal year 2007.
A shortage of models? Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who introduced a bill that
would create 1,000 new visa slots for them, said it s a problem in Manhattan
but also in his Brooklyn district, which feels the impact in terms of the loss
of "ancillary benefits" such as jobs in the industry or increased business.
Weiner s bill moves models into a new P-4 visa category, one associated with
entertainers and athletes.
The bill s language requires that the visiting model be "of distinguished
merit and ability" and that the event or photo shoot have a "distinguished
reputation."
Failing that, a model may be sponsored by "an organization or establishment
that has a distinguished reputation for, or a record of, utilizing prominent
modeling talent."
The committee report makes the case for the new visa category. The current
visa structure, it says, "hurts American commercial interests" and "undermines
our nation s leadership role in the international fashion, publishing and
advertising industries."
But won t letting in more foreign models hurt American models looking for
work?
The committee report says no. "When advertisers and marketers cannot get the
particular fashion model they want into the United States for their shoot,
they have an easy solution: namely, to move the location of the shoot
offshore."
Weiner noted that some modeling agencies have begun simply Photoshopping a
backdrop of New York City into a picture of a model in Eastern Europe.
Microsoft s Bill Gates and other computer industry impresarios have long
lobbied Congress to expand the high-tech visa category, complaining that U.S.
tech companies lose valuable talent to other nations.
The Judiciary Committee says losing models -- a beauty drain? -- can have a
negative effect on the U.S. economy, too. "Taxes that would be paid by foreign
fashion models for working in the United States are lost to federal and state
governments; firms that manage fashion models in the United States lose
commissions to foreign firms; American fashion models who might be included in
ensemble shoots are displaced by local talent in the offshore location;
advertising agencies and other media firms in the United States lose business
to their foreign counterparts; American fashion photographers lose business to
foreign photographers; and workers who support fashion shoots -- hair and
makeup artists, fashion stylists, prop stylists, photographic printers,
retouchers [and] assistants -- lose employment opportunities."
In the Senate, Judiciary Committee members Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Dianne
Feinstein (D-Calif.) said this week that they could get behind Weiner s model
bill, although both said their primary concerns -- high-tech workers and
agriculture workers -- were elsewhere.
But with swimsuit season upon us, there may not be enough days left on the
calendar to get Weiner s bill through the Senate this session. Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) hasn t exactly made the
model fix a top priority yet.
"I know about a lot of things," he said this week, "but I don t know anything
about that."
Weiner worries that there will be little chance of it moving through the
Senate this year. "It s a little bit of nibbling at the edge" of immigration
reform, he said. "It ll probably have to wait for comprehensive reform."
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