Eric Thomas or Frances Cox 202-822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 18, 2007

Compete America Praises Representative Shadegg for Introduction of Employment-Based Visa Reform Bill

Washington D.C. – Compete America today praised the introduction of the “SKIL Bill” by Representative John Shadegg (R-AZ) and urged that the bill’s provisions to reform both the H-1B visa and employment based (EB visa) green card processes be included in a House comprehensive immigration reform measure. 

The Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership (SKIL) Bill contains measures that are crucial to alleviating the crisis facing U.S. employers of highly educated foreign professionals.  A companion measure was introduced by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Senate last week.

“By re-introducing this bill, Representative Shadegg clearly understands that U.S. employers need relief this year to be able to continue hiring the highly educated foreign-born professionals they need to keep the economy strong and America competitive,” stated Jenifer Verdery, Director of Workforce Policy, Intel Corporation, and co-chair of Compete America.

The unprecedented announcement by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that the FY 2008 allotment of H-1B visas was met on the very first day applications were accepted was cited as evidence that reform of the visa system for highly educated foreign professionals is critical and must be enacted this year.  Not only was the H-1B visa allotment for FY ’08 used up in a single day; it is estimated that one-half of those who filed will not receive a visa, as they will not be selected in the pending USCIS random selection “lottery.”  Unless Congress acts, U.S. employers will face an 18-month “blackout period” until an H-1B worker can be hired in FY 2009 – and that assumes they will be fortunate enough to be selected in next year’s USCIS visa lottery.

“The H-1B visa and EB green card systems are broken, and U.S. competitiveness is eroding while Congress fails to act on critical reforms,” continued Verdery.  “We are grateful to Representative Shadegg for once again recognizing the importance of foreign-born professionals to our nation, and we look forward to working with Congress to permanently fix the H-1B visa and EB green card programs this year.”

For more information on how highly educated immigration benefits America, please visit www.competeamerica.org.

Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of corporations, educators, 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.