Eric Thomas or Frances Cox 202/822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 16, 2008

Compete America Applauds Senate Appropriators for Approving Measure to Provide Short-term Employment-based Green Card Relief

Provision in Supplemental Spending Bill Would Help U.S. Employers Retain Critical Highly Educated Professionals

Washington D.C. – Compete America today applauded members of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee for approving short-term relief to the heavily backlogged employment-based (EB) green card system. The amendment to the supplemental appropriations package was offered by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and was co-sponsored by Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH). The incremental adjustments would help U.S. employers keep much-needed and sought-after highly educated professionals living, working and innovating in America.

Specifically, the approved provisions would:

• “Recapture” EB green cards that were authorized in previous years but went unused due to government process delays, easing the multi-year wait times for green cards that now prevail; and
• Permit U.S. employers to retain critical professional employees who are already here and in the EB green card process but who cannot enter the all-important final stage of that process, the “adjustment of status” application stage.

“These interim fixes to the EB green card system are a step in the right direction, and we applaud members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, particularly Senators Murray and Gregg, for including these critical measures in the supplemental spending bill,” said Robert Hoffman, Vice President for Government and Public Affairs at Oracle and Co-Chair of Compete America. “Reforming the EB green card system to allow U.S. employers to retain highly educated professionals who are already working here makes perfect sense, and we look forward to working with Congress to ensure that these and longer-term reforms are enacted 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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