Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Senate Bill Would Give US Grads Preference In Receiving H-1B Visas (computerworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the special-treatment dept.

dcblogs quotes a report from Computerworld: A new bill in Congress would give foreign students who graduate from U.S. schools priority in getting an H-1B visa. The legislation also "explicitly prohibits" the replacement of American workers by visa holders. This bill, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, was announced Thursday by its co-sponsors, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), longtime allies on H-1B reform. Grassley is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which gives this bill an immediate big leg up in the legislative process. This legislation would end the annual random distribution, via a lottery, of H-1B visas, and replace it with a system to give priority to certain types of students. Foreign nationals in the best position to get one of the 85,000 H-1B visas issued annually will have earned an advanced degree from a U.S. school, have a well-paying job offer, and have preferred skills. The specific skills weren't identified, but will likely be STEM-related. "Congress created these programs to complement America's high-skilled workforce, not replace it," said Grassley, in a statement. "Unfortunately, some companies are trying to exploit the programs by cutting American workers for cheaper labor."

9 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. It's a start! by Notabadguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's a small start on a long needed road of reform. At least they're having the discussion.

    1. Re:It's a start! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      What I've seen in the past is first identifying the candidate, then writing the job description to uniquely identify that candidate.

    2. Re:It's a start! by MountainLogic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Four steps would do much to clean up the problems:
      1) Raise the salary floor to $100k from the current $60k
      2) Force employers to pay a 10% tax on that salary
      3) Create a bidding structure based on the minimum guaranteed salary those employees are willing to pay those H1B employees. Currently there is a lottery for employers to get these slots. That should stop. If an employer is willing to guaranteed a $200k salary then they go ahead of the bottom feeders only willing to pay $100k in the order of allocations
      3) End jobbing out these employees in body shops.
      We are only supposed to be bringing in the most needed skills and those with the highest demand skills would be paid the highest (or at least according to knee jerk capitalist dogma). I would expect this to bring in a lot more cardiac surgeons and a lot fewer share point admins.

    3. Re:It's a start! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You are either young, unexperienced or just delusional. When companies decide to switch some or 100% of their IT workforce to H1Bs, it's usually decided by the CEO and other execs/MBAs who:
      a. Do not know about your "mad coding skillz"
      b. Do not understand how "good" you think you are
      c. Do not give a shit about your existence
      d. Are only concerned about the $$$ (your_pay - h1b_pay)

      You think all the guys who got canned at Disney are dumber than your holiness?

      Finally, good luck with your "mad skillz" when applying for a job when your resume is thrown in the Recycle Bin simply because you are NOT an H1B.

  2. Does this help? by fluffernutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The H-!B program prohibited the replacement of American workers before, but ways were found to get around it. This bill is really saying the same thing with the addition of foreign students getting preference for them? Maybe I'm being a negative nellie here but it seems that this bill doesn't do anything extra than the original bill did except give domestic STEM workers more competition to get into good schools due to an influx of students looking for the H-1B ride.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  3. Re:Thank you, Pres. Trump, for putting America fir by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think it was political correctness that led to the H1B issue. I think it was probably corporate/rich person greed.

  4. Re:Thank you, Pres. Trump, for putting America fir by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Trump and his new cabinet will soon put an end to corporate greed as well.

  5. Why give them H1Bs? by mark_reh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not give them a green card? If you give them H1Bs they are still slaves and will still be paid less than American workers. This isn't an improvement, it's window dressing. It won't change anything except increase the competition/corruption to get into US schools.

  6. Re:Thank you Donald! by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I vote for Trump because I believed there was about a 30% chance he would actually deliver on his promises to stand up to the corporations in favor of the working class. The odds were, and still are, in favor of him being full of shit on those promises. But that 30% chance is still better than the 0% chance that Hillary would have ever stood up for the working class.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.