Eric Thomas or Frances Cox 202/822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 12, 2008

Compete America Supports Continued Effort to “Recalibrate”
Employment-Based Green Card Program

Washington D.C. – Compete America thanked Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, for continuing to seek a remedy for problems plaguing users of the employment-based (EB) green card system, which include universities, hospitals, and both large and small businesses that depend on highly skilled professionals.  Rep. Lofgren has sponsored three bills – each with a different Republican sponsor – to address specific issues impacting the EB green card program, which were the topic of today’s hearing in the Immigration Subcommittee.

“Support for making a much-needed recalibration of the EB green card program is widespread, and we are hopeful that through bipartisan cooperation, remedies can become law this year,” said Robert Hoffman, Vice President for Government and Public Affairs at Oracle and Co-Chair of Compete America.

Hoffman noted that each of the three EB green card reform bills has garnered the support of a diverse group of organizations, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Semiconductor Industry Association, and Stanford University, all of who testified in support of EB green card reform at today’s hearing.  The three bills are:

• H.R. 6039: A bill to exempt highly educated, foreign-born students earning an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering and mathematics from a U.S. university from the annual EB green card limit.  Lead sponsors: Reps. Lofgren and Chris Cannon (R-UT);
• H.R. 5882: A bill 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.  Lead sponsors: Reps. Lofgren and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI); and
• H.R. 5921: A bill to eliminate per country limits on EB green card distribution, thus removing artificial bottlenecks for employees from high-demand countries.  Lead sponsors: Reps. Lofgren and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).

“Taken together, these three bills represent common-sense incremental measures that Congress should enact this year,” Hoffman concluded.

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.

¤ ¤ ¤