How do we expect America to remain competitive if our companies. who often face labor shortages in this country. cant recruit the best talent and top notch researchers from abroad? Mr. President. the HelmsShelby amendment is good for America because it increases the availability of skillbased. businessrelated visas. The Senator from Massachusetts pointed out last night that I was one of four Senators who voted against the 1988 bill. He was right about that. and I did so for a number of reasons. First. the 1988 bill did nothing whatsoever to increase the skillbased. businessrelated visas. But in the pending HelmsShelby amendment. we provide an increase of 37.200 of these visas. Second. the 1988 bill had a mechanism that automatically increased the national level by up to 5 percent upon the Presidents recommendation and without an affirmative vote by the Congress of the United States. The HelmsShelby amendment drops this very unwise delegation of congressional authority to the executive.