NEWS CONTACTS: Frances Cox (202) 822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 21, 2005

Compete America Disappointed as Immigration Provisions are Dropped from Final Budget Reconciliation Package

Vows Renewed Effort to Remedy Visa Crisis in 2006

Washington, D.C. - Compete America expressed its disappointment that the Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 was approved without the Senate-approved provision that would expand access to employment-based (EB) and H-1B visas as a method of raising over $300 million for the federal treasury.

"We are disappointed because the budget provisions approved by the Senate represented a reasonable way to provide short-term and immediate relief to the pressing problem of visa shortages," said Sandra Boyd, Vice President, National Association of Manufacturers and Compete America Chair. "U.S. employers cannot continue to wait while our foreign competitors are increasing their efforts to attract some of the world's top talent - who are often foreign students graduating from U.S. universities. Without relief, U.S. employers will have a difficult time hiring the talent they need to remain competitive and continue as the world leader in technology and innovation."

Arbitrary limits on temporary H-1B visas for highly educated foreign nationals, coupled with growing backlogs of EB visas (green cards) has exacerbated a significant problem for U.S. employers and tens of thousands of U.S. workers. All of the FY 2006 H-1B visas were gone in August 2005, and the well-documented problem of green card backlogs has only worsened this fiscal year.

"The system is disruptive to U.S. employers and our economy, and exceedingly unfair to hard-working, valued members of the American workforce who have waited for years to receive their green cards, and who now may be forced to return home or seek employment in other nations," Boyd added.

In the past few weeks alone, Compete America has received hundreds of testimonials from legal immigrants caught in the byzantine green card system. Doctors, engineers, teachers and other valued contributors to the American economy and way of life have had years added to their already extensive processing periods - often seeing their temporary work visas expire during waits of up to seven and eight years.

"The system is broken and must be fixed. The Congress passed up an excellent opportunity to help keep America competitive. We will expect these issues to receive serious consideration by the appropriate committees early next year," concluded Boyd.

Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of more than 200 corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations concerned about legal, employment-based immigration and committed to ensuring that the United States has the highly educated workforce necessary to ensure continued innovation, job creation and leadership in a worldwide economy.

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