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US House STEM Visa Bill Fails
dcblogs writes "A Republican-led effort to issue up to 55,000 STEM visas a year to students who earn advanced degrees at U.S. universities was defeated in a House vote. It needed a two-thirds vote, or about 290 ayes, for approval. Its supporters came up short, 257 to 158. Both parties support green cards for science, technology, engineering and math advanced degree grads, but can't agree on legislation. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has introduced his own STEM bill, urged House leaders to seek new negotiations: 'A bipartisan compromise can easily be ready for the lame duck session. There is too broad a consensus in favor of this policy to settle for gridlock.'"
Did they exhaust the H1B limit already?
The bill was brought up under a procedure that limits debate and doesn't allow amendments but requires a two-thirds majority for passage.
If they cant agree on something as trivial as this, it appears that stopping this freight train before reaching fiscal cliff is a very real impossibility.
Mr Schumer name should never be printed without a reference to Bandwagon, unless it is used with the term Carpetbagger.
So dumb, they can't pass a law that allows smart people to stay in their country WHEN BOTH THEY AND THOSE PEOPLE STILL WANT TO STAY.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
The argument is over the green card lottery, Republicans want to end it, the Democrats do not. About 5.5% of all Green Cards are issued based on the lottery. Both Democrats and Republicans want to issue the 55,000 visas, which are targeted at lowering wages of college graduates. So this gridlock is, for the time being, good for most readers of this site.
Fugue for Aaron Swartz
If you pass this bill don't fall into the same trap as the UK. Only allow degrees accredited by Universities with a proven academic record, and not any "overseas branches". Even reputable Universities can be tempted by overseas operations, and it is much harder to deal with after the event after the event.
Now where are they going to find those rare Java programmers who will work at "reasonable" rates?
... they're after cheap newbies. There's a fair number of STEM people getting laid off as pharma contracts and other high-tech, not computer business off-shore. So, unless they're looking for young'uns who won't need the $$ or benefits, there's little point to this legislation.
When smart people with the means to immigrate come to this country Its a benefit to us even to American smart people. The idea
that immigration depresses wages is based on flawed static economic models. Immigration to the US goes down when unemployment goes up.
I want you techies to view it this way. When immigrants from asia come to this country they have little asian girls, who grow up to be
asian hotties who like marrying nerds who produce the holy grail the eurasian hottie who likes nerds.
More visas now= generations of asian and eurasian hotties for your grandsons(or granddaughters...I support equal rights for lgbt folks)
An analysis of whom the US lets in, versus other countries (Short article, has two infographics):
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/08/27/160110929/immigration-who-the-u-s-lets-in-and-why
Spoiler:
The short answer: The U.S. mostly lets in family members of people who are already in this country. Other developed countries focus much more on letting in workers.
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Missing from the summary, which would help explain why the bill failed, was the fact that the 55,000 greencards for STEM would be taken from the pool that is used for granting greencards (by lottery) to people in other countries that just want to come to the U.S. In other words, in trying to retain these students, the Republicans wanted to sharply reduce the number of just-plain-ordinary immigrants coming from, say, Ghana, Poland, and Brazil. Competing legislation would have left the greencard lottery pool intact, and simply allocated a new block of 55,000 greencards specifically for advanced degree recipients.
So, Republicans are so accustomed to blocking or voting down bills in the house that they have ended this bill that they themselves have started. How ironic.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
We have high unemployment. We have had over 48 straight months of our labor force participation rate falling. We have also had a record number of people in college or go back to college in the last 3 years.
Why are we trying to bring in MORE PEOPLE that will take jobs away from US CITIZENS???
Jesus tap dancing Christ!
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
I have so much sympathy for them. They have a significant majority in the house, so they shouldn't need to write a bill that makes any concessions to anyone who isn't in their party, should they? Clearly it is fine to write a bill just for your own kin and ignore the concerns of everyone else - you can always blame them if it doesn't pass.
After all, your election was all about you, not about the rest of the country.
And thank you, samzenpus, for again providing a pro-conservative bit on the front page. Lets remind the world that slashdot views the democrats as evil, evil, evil.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Meh. We already decided to stay here. Also, we'll take your smoking hot women and they'll have our babies (btw, they're crazy about our thick accents). Semi-foriegn babies, that is, who will take the jerbs away from your full-blooded babies. Mwahahaha!
If you have no criminal record, and you want to come into this country, you should be allowed to. After being here for 2 years without legal incident or financial failure (you're not living off welfare) you should be allowed to apply to become a citizen. After 2 more years of no run-ins with the law, you should get full citizenship. Period.
All these ridiculous visas for the rich, or if you're smart are just stupid. Illegal immigration is stupid. It should be easy to get here if you're a good person, plain and simple.
From http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_us_vis_lot_win-immigration-us-visa-lottery-winners
Showing latest available data. Rank Countries Amount
# 1 Nigeria: 7,145 US visa lottery winners
# 2 Ghana: 7,040 US visa lottery winners
# 3 Ethiopia: 6,353 US visa lottery winners
# 4 Kenya: 5,721 US visa lottery winners
# 5 Poland: 5,467 US visa lottery winners
# 6 Bangladesh: 5,126 US visa lottery winners
# 7 Morocco: 5,069 US visa lottery winners
# 8 Ukraine: 4,494 US visa lottery winners
# 9 Nepal: 4,259 US visa lottery winners
# 10 Egypt: 4,189 US visa lottery winners
The Daily Show the other night had a funny little piece where they talked to republicans and democrats at the national conventions to ask them how to overcome gridlock. It results in an orgy of insults directed at the other party, from both sides, that amused me pretty well.
I know it is a comedy show and perhaps can't be taken too seriously, but having family spread out between both parties, I can say it was fairly accurate in my experience. Both sides want to say that the world would be a magical fairy land if only the other side wasn't made up of complete jackasses that are only out to fuck up the plans of the other party.
In sum: yes, Tea Party has been made fun of it. But how did the Tea Party start? There's a constant bashing of Obama as a socialist and democrats as wanting to propogate a lazy welfare state. O-bum-a, Commrade Obama, I've heard it all. Name calling is on both sides, and is the main problem with our gridlock. There are groups in each party that are so desperately out to smear the other side that we never get a real debate. Personally, I do not agree with much of what the republican platform says this time around, but there is an important difference between not agreeing and going out of my way to insult people of the other party. I am sure that the majority of common people in each party (many politicians excluded) absolutely mean well for the country, and believe their platform really will be best. No secret agenda to give money to lazy welfare queens, or give tax breaks to rich people. The majority of voters aren't thinking that; they are thinking, what plan seems best to get the country going again?
When the everyday people recognize this, that just because the other approximately half of the country doesn't vote the same as you DOES NOT mean they are unpatriotic jackasses out to ruin the country, then perhaps we can get somewhere. But this is going to have to be a team effort from both parties. And I am sad to say that the current older generations of the country seem to prefer the gridlock and blame, or at least are stuck in this idea that "that's the way it is". I hope this will change with the younger generations as they start taking over congressional seats.
Here are the list of 3 bills proposed by different politicians. Each of them have advantages and disadvantages in their own reasons.
Bill from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) -- http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231276/Republicans_ready_STEM_Jobs_Act_
- Replace DV lottery program with STEM visa
- Only those who obtained a doctorate or master degree from a U.S. university (or those who obtained a doctorate from a foreign university) are eligible, including courses/programs taking from online
- Allow those who graduated from for-profit schools to participate with some level of criteria set. - The candidate must be physically present in the U.S.
- The process to obtain the visa is similar to the process to obtain a green card
- The candidate must work with the employer at least 5 years
- Doctorate holders has higher priority when apply.
- Employers and occupation of the job must be listed on Department of Homeland Security website.
Bill from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) -- http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231295/Democrats_produce_rival_STEM_visa_bill
- Instead of replacing the DV lottery program, create a new green card program called EB-6.
- Let the new program run for 2 years, and then let lawmakers reassess whether to continue it.
- Not allow for-profit schools into the program.
- The pay must be considered from experience level, not from prevailing wage.
Bill from U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) -- http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231377/Schumer_to_introduce_own_STEM_visa_bill?taxonomyId=70
- Similar to Lofgren but allow for-profit schools.
Your statement is comical and full of crap. Here's why:
*An of these visa's including the current permanent residency Employment based visas are issued only after the sponsoring company shows proof that there was not a US citizen/existing permanent resident that they could find to fill the position. This is called PERM labor certification. The process is randomly audited to prevent fraud.
2. There are 86,275 tech jobs listed on just Dice.com as of today. If you are not eligible to be hired for any of these jobs, that's your problem.
3. Using any standard assessment tests may sound important to ordinary folks who know nothing about programming/computers but the fact is less than 20% of all programming job interviews require a standard assessment. That is because most jobs are easy to fill just basing on a one or more rounds of technical interviews.
If you pass this bill don't fall into the same trap as the UK. Only allow degrees accredited by Universities with a proven academic record, and not any "overseas branches". Even reputable Universities can be tempted by overseas operations, and it is much harder to deal with after the event after the event.
I realised that it might not be obvious what I'm talking about. Some "low end" educational establishments just become a means to buy a visa rather than teaching the students to any reasonable degree.
Afro-asian girls and hispanic-asian girls are all good too.
In our utopian nerd tech future....EVERYONE GETS SOME!
"Uuh, I can't compete, save me government!"
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So to all those foreign students with high education degrees, GET THE HELL OUT
Not entirely sure why they should get out instead of you.
I couldn't get a job as a programmer for 3 years despite beating 82% of all programmers
Maybe you are just an annoying person...you certainly sound like one!
Someone remind, what's wrong with employing all the desperately unemployed STEM citizens with advanced degrees already in the US? There are plenty of STEM grads with masters and phds who are willing to settle for low wages just to get a foot in the door and have some experience to put on a resume. If the people who are born here are really so bad, why not just move all those companies (or at least STEM operations) to someplace "preferable" and take cost of living out of the equation entirely?