Eric Thomas or Frances Cox 202/822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 19, 2008

Compete America Commends Representative Lamar Smith for Introducing Emergency Measure to Temporarily Raise H-1B Visa Limit

New Legislation Would Provide Temporary Fix of Arbitrary 65,000 Cap

Washington D.C. – Compete America commended Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) for introducing the “Strengthening United States Technology and Innovation Now Act,” which would raise the H-1B visa cap from its current 65,000 limit to 195,000 during fiscal years 2008 and 2009.  Representative Smith is Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee.  Co-sponsors of the legislation include Representatives Eric Cantor (R-VA), Tom Feeney (R-FL) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).

Like last year, the 65,000 FY 2009 cap is expected to be reached on the same day applications are first accepted, April 1.  This will mark the tenth time since 1997 that the H-1B cap has been reached before the end of the fiscal year, and the fifth year in a row that it has been reached on or before the start of the fiscal year.

“The trend is clear – each year the H-1B cap is hit earlier than the previous year, signaling a growing and unmet need for highly educated professionals in sectors of the economy ranging from health care to high tech to higher education,” said Robert Hoffman, Vice President for Government and Public Affairs at Oracle and Co-Chair of Compete America.  “We thank Representative Smith for providing a much-needed temporary increase to the H-1B limits. At the same time, we call on Congress to permanently solve the inadequacies of both the H-1B visa and employment-based green cards systems.”  

In addition to insufficient H-1B visa numbers, the employment-based (EB) green card system – which allows highly educated foreign-born professionals to remain in the United States – is plagued by backlogs and years-long waiting times. Compete America supports legislation that would provide a permanent fix to these pervasive problems – including a market-based H-1B visa cap, a streamlined EB green card process, and an expedited path to permanent resident status for foreign-born masters and Ph.D. graduates from U.S. universities.

Recent studies from the National Foundation for American Policy and testimony last week by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates all point to the critical importance of highly educated workers as a source of economic growth and job creation in America. 

“Highly educated workers have been shown time and time again to be great contributors to the U.S. economy, and America should be welcoming these professionals, not turning them away to compete against us,” said Hoffman.  “We appreciate Representative Smith’s introduction of this bill and urge Congress to make significant long-term reforms for highly-skilled professionals this year.”

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.

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