EEE-USA Urges Congress to Strengthen Protections for U.S. High-Tech Worker

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 /U.S. Newswire

Congress should allow the H- 1B visa cap to drop to its original level of 65,000, retain the $1,000 visa application fee and ensure that the money is used to provide technical skills training for displaced high-tech U.S. workers, according to IEEE-USA President-Elect John Steadman, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) today.

While more than 900,000 H-1B visas, including new, renewal and exempt categories, were approved since the beginning of FY 2000, the unemployment rate among electrical and electronics engineers shot up to an unprecedented 7 percent in the first quarter of this year. Thousands more guest workers entered the country on L-1 visas, and an undetermined number of engineers and information technology professionals have lost their jobs to offshoring during the same period, Steadman noted.

"Ultimately at risk is America's ability to innovate and to use technology to provide competitive advantage and ensure our national economic and military security," Steadman said. ---

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., created in 1973 to advance the public good, while promoting the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 235,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society.