'Americans first' gaining traction

[OhioChick]

4/20/09 4:19 AM EDT


Tapping into voters’ anger over growing job losses, a Senate Democratic leader and an Iowa Republican are ready to reignite debate on a bill that would tighten the rules for companies that hire highly educated, “specialty occupation” foreign workers.

The “American first” proposal by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) would require companies to prove an American worker was not displaced by the hiring of an H-1B temporary worker. The bill also includes L-1 visas for foreigners transferring from their home offices to U.S. facilities.

Increased oversight of H-1B visas — issued to college-educated foreigners only when qualified Americans cannot be found — was squeezed into the economic stimulus plan signed into law in February by President Barack Obama.

The provision, co-sponsored by Grassley and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), requires any bank or company receiving federal bailout funds to look for Americans first when hiring.

“When lose their jobs, they should not be cast aside because lower-cost foreign workers are available,” Sanders said recently in a letter to the Manchester Journal newspaper.

Opponents argue the small H-1B program already has labor and wage protections for American workers and is being needlessly attacked. The stimulus bill’s provision was aimed at the banking industry, which holds less than 1 percent of the H-1Bs.

Such measures are “protectionist and self-defeating,” Goldman Sachs Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein said recently, because the highly skilled foreign workers help create new jobs that are especially needed during this recession.

The Durbin-Grassley bill made little progress when it was offered two years ago, but the “American first” sentiment has gained traction as unemployment rises and attention is paid to the outsourcing of American jobs.

Also, the vacuum created by Washington’s failure to enact comprehensive immigration reforms has given immigration restrictionists room to sharply question whether foreign workers have better job security.

In a sign that companies are not abusing the system, the visa application period that began April 1 showed a major decrease in new H-1B requests, in line with the economic downturn.

It has taken weeks to reach the 65,000 annual cap for new H-1Bs. (Another 20,000 visas are issued to advanced degree holders.) By contrast, the cap was reached in the first and second days of the 2009 and 2009 filing periods — unusually early — according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Microsoft Corp., which currently has 1,038 H-1B visa employees — the fifth largest number — reduced its petitions. The company wants to hold onto its current visa workers to avoid losing them to a foreign competitor, an official said.

Still, reports of fraud are up.

More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21424.html

Good for Durbin, Grassley and Sanders! :thumbsup:

[sarcasmo]

1. Canadians help me out but don't you already have this sort of thing in place?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. I know Canada has that kind of law in place for academic jobs

I tried for years to get a job in Canada, but all the ads for Canadian universities end with the phrase: "This announcement is directed first at Canadian citizens and landed immigrants." In practice, this means that no one else has a chance unless the school can prove that no qualified Canadians have applied. I sent my application in anyway, but I never even got an acknowledgment. Others had the same experience.

[Deja Q]

2. While Americans can be arrogant on some things, working hard and asking fair wages are not arrogance

Our economy depends on consumer spending. A thousand inflation-adjusted charts showing CEO pay rising while worker pay declining cannot surely be wrong?

I'm sorry about the fraud.

As long as Microsoft doesn't keep firing native positions, I won't care about the current H1Bs. They offer value too, but other countries are known for taking care of their own first. America needs to take care of its own too.

I just don't understand. Maybe I will once economics class starts in a couple quarters from now.

:shrug:

[ihavenobias]

3. K & R n/t

[boomerbust]

4. Remember

When Obama just mentioned rewriting Nafta He was attacked. Buy American in stimulus, protectionism socialist. He cant win. The right wing blowhards want failure plain and simple.

[pleah]

5. K&R!

:thumbsup: