Statement by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). Re: introduction of the Technology Worker Temporary Relief Act. Date: March 1, 2000. Source: Office of Rep. Smith.

Statement of Congressman Lamar Smith
Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee
on introduction of the
Technology Worker Temporary Relief Act

March 1, 2000

The high-tech industry accounts for almost a third of the productivity growth in today’s economy. When Congress can help sustain a good economy, it should act. But Congress should respond to demonstrated needs, not overreact and risk doing more harm than good.

This legislation, which will be introduced today, represents a joint effort that is a reasonable and measured response to the concerns of the high-tech industry.

Tom Campbell, Representative from Silicon Valley, Chris Cannon, a high-tech entrepreneur himself, Bob Goodlatte, Chairman of the House Republican High Technology Working Group, and I as Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, have worked together to draft a bill that can become law. It offers a solution to meet the actual needs of the information technology industry for foreign workers.

The Technology Worker Temporary Relief Act increases the cap for H-1B visas in 2000 by 45,000. This figure is a projection based on the number of visa applications filed last year. The bill allows for 160,000 alien workers in 2000 and 107,500 in 2001 for stays of up to six years.

The year 2000 increase in these visas is necessary to address the 1999 "bubble" in foreign worker visa applications. The increased quota for this year will be large enough to absorb those aliens who had been approved for H-1B status late in 1999 after that year’s cap was reached-the "bubble"-plus the number of aliens mistakenly granted visas by the INS above the 1999 cap.

The number of visas available in 2000 and 2001 will be sufficient to meet demand, since even at last year’s peak, the INS only approved about 9,000 H-1B visas per month, or 108,000 on an annual basis.

The legislation provides employers with "fast track" authority that will expedite H-1B applications for legitimate users.

The bill reduces the fraud that robs the H-1B program of visas that would otherwise be available for legitimate employers. Verifying aliens’ foreign degrees and the qualifications of petitioning businesses will free up more visas for those companies that contribute to America’s economic growth.

Our bill seeks to solve an immediate problem. It will meet the anticipated needs of the high-tech industry without overreaching and threatening an increase in the number of foreign workers to the point of putting at risk the wages or jobs of American workers and students.

American information technology workers are concerned about their future job prospects. Too often, industry considers them expendable by the age of 30, and too expensive to retrain when cheaper foreign workers on H-1B visas are readily available. Sometimes they have seen their colleagues laid off and replaced by these foreign workers. The unemployment rate for computer programmers over 50 years old is 17 percent.

American college students also are concerned. We’re seeing more U.S. students enroll in computer science classes to prepare for the widely advertised job opportunities in information technology. But they may face the prospect of graduating and entering the job market just as the market is flooded with foreign workers under the H-1B program.

 The Department of Labor estimates that over the next few years there will be 138,000 job openings a year in information technology occupations. At the same time, 162,000 students will graduate each year with associate, bachelor, and graduate degrees in computer science, engineering, and mathematics.

The bill helps American workers in other ways. It makes the additional visas available only after the Administration enforces the provisions Congress approved in 1998 to stop the abuses of "job shops" and "sweat shops" that took advantage of foreign high-tech workers. And the visas will only be available to employers who increase their hires of American workers and boost their pay.

In addition, the bill will raise the fee paid by employers for access to the H-1B program from $500 to $1,000 per alien and direct the revenue raised to American college students in the form of scholarships for study in high-tech fields. So the bill will help solve America’s future high tech needs.

Our bill, balanced to help both American industry and American workers, can earn the support of the American people and be signed into law. We are mindful that in a 1998 Harris poll 82 percent opposed the admission of 190,000 foreign high-tech workers. Enactment of the Technology Worker Temporary Relief Act will ensure that the bright promise of the digital age is fulfilled for both American industry and American workers.

Last year’s visa applications are the only real measure we have for high-tech worker demand. There is no credible or objective study documenting the high-tech labor shortage. The study that Congress commissioned by the National Science Foundation is unlikely to be completed before Congress adjourns this year.

Finally, we are forced to rely on the H-1B program because America’s immigration system works at cross-purposes with the needs of our economy. We admit almost a million legal immigrants a year. Yet they can’t meet our need for skilled workers because 35 percent of those of working age do not have a high school education (compared to 9 percent of native-born workers).

The mismatch will only get worse since 90 percent of all future jobs will require post-high school education. The real losers of this system-as shown by five recent studies by well-respected institutions-are those Americans and recent immigrants who must compete with millions of newcomers for a fixed number of low-skilled jobs. We must recognize that the needs of the high-tech industry are only a small part of the overall needs of the American workplace.