U.S. Senator John McCain yesterday said he would next month introduce legislation to increase the limit of temporary visas for highly skilled foreign workers to 175,000 from the 115,000 visas currently allowed.
McCain [R-Ariz.] who is running for president, joins a growing number of politicians in Congress trying to increase the allocation of so-called H-1B visas for foreign workers seeking temporary jobs in the U.S.
"We are going to need 2.6 million extra jobs in high-tech industries by the year 2000," McCain says. "But we ran out of H-1B visas by June."
Current policy has resulted in an artificial "skills shortage" for high-tech companies, he says. McCain spoke at a brief news conference following a campaign speech he gave at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco.
High-tech companies have lobbied Washington in recent months to expand the number of visas, saying they need the talent. In response, several bills have been filed. Among the sponsors of visa bills is Senator Phil Gramm [R-Texas] who offered legislation expanding the visa number to 200,000 a year.
Congress raised the cap on the number of visas allowed this year from 65,000 to 115,000, but for the third year in a row the limit was reached well before year-end.
McCain also says his bill will shift money to the states, sending local governments a $500-per-visa fee that companies now pay the Department of Labor to retrain U.S. workers. His bill also would give more attention to the creation of scholarships and retraining programs for American workers.
The high-tech industry is hoping Congress will pass a bill later this year, says John Ullyot, a spokesman with chipmaker Intel.
"Intel is interested in having the best talent possible," Ullyot says. "And very often, some of the best talent will be [foreign students] with masters or other degrees from American universities who run up against these limits."
The vast majority of applicants for H-1B visas are educated at U.S. universities, Ullyot adds.
While industry supports such a bill, labor and engineering groups have lobbied against it, says Carl Shusterman, a Los Angeles immigration lawyer.
"The IT industry feels like the [visa limits] are killing the golden goose" of its success, he says. "But right now, the administration doesn't even want to talk about it."
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