Eric Thomas or Frances Cox 202/822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 24, 2008

Compete America Applauds Representatives Lofgren and Sensenbrenner for Bill to Recapture Unused Employment-based Green Cards

Bipartisan Bill Would Help U.S. Employers Keep Critical Highly Educated Professionals Working for the American Innovation Economy

Washington D.C. – Compete America today applauded Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) for introducing a bipartisan bill, H.R. 5882, to “recapture” employment-based (EB) green cards that Congress authorized in the past but that went unused before the end of the fiscal year because of government processing delays.  It is estimated that the bill would restore approximately 218,000 unused EB green cards for use by U.S. employers to retain highly educated workers already employed in the United States.

“We applaud Chairwoman Lofgren and Congressman Sensenbrenner for recognizing the enormous strains that green card backlogs have placed on U.S. companies and most important, on highly educated workers who are already here and contributing to the American economy,” said Robert Hoffman, Vice President for Government and Public Affairs at Oracle and Co-Chair of Compete America. “Recapturing unused, already authorized EB green cards is a common-sense temporary measure that Congress should enact this year.”

The EB green cards went unused due to government processing delays. Backlogs in the EB green card system are well documented, with some foreign-born highly educated professionals waiting five to 10 years to receive a permanent resident visa.   Without this fix, U.S. employers will be crippled in the global competition for the world’s best talent, as more and more extremely valuable professionals from around the world take their education and abilities to competitors abroad. 

“America is in a full-blown global competition for talent, and competitor nations are doing all they can to make permanent residence more readily available to highly educated workers and draw talent away from the U.S. economy,” continued Hoffman.  “We look forward to seeing the Lofgren/Sensenbrenner bill, as well as other reforms for highly skilled immigration, become law 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.

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