I understand the claim is that this program is still necessary for rural communities. However. it is important to note that fourfifths of the nurses who entered under the HlA program went to metropolitan areas. In fact. onethird of them went to New York City. For those rural areas that need nurses. they have the ability to petition for nurses under the H1B Program. and they should certainly utilize that. This extraordinary program that was useful for our country at one time expired in September. and it should stay dead. We had 6.000 nurses enter from Canada and Mexico under NAFTA in 1994 alone.