Speech #1050001170

The rapid aging of our nations population. the demands of the AIDS crisis. increasing emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention. and the growth of home health care have out paced our ability to educate an adequate number of physical therapy and occupational therapy practitioners. In addition. technological advances are allowing injured and disabled individuals to survive conditions that in the past would have proven fatal. Americas Inability to educate an adequate number of physical therapists and occupational therapists has led to an increased reliance on foreigneducated. nonimmigrant temporary workers (HlB visa holders). The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform has identified the physical therapy and occupational therapy fields as having among the highest number of HlB visa holders in the U.S.. second only to computer specialists. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). we know that 1.389 HlB visa holders sought employment as physical therapists In 1994. This number represents 5.9 percent of the 23.500 arrivals for which the INS can verify their known occupation. An additional 82.399 holders of HlB visas were reported to have entered the U.S. in 1994 for which the INS does not have occupation data. If we assume that the same percentage of H1B visa holders are seeking employment in physical therapy as in the knownoccupation pool. we can calculate that an additional 4.861 foreigneducated physical therapists were also seeking employment (5.9 percent of 82.399 aliens). Thus. the total number of foreigneducated physical therapists seeking employment in the U.S. during 1994 was approximately 6.250. In comparison. U.S. programs of physical therapy graduated a total of 5.846 physical therapists from 141 institutions nationwide in the same year. While the INS does not categorize occupational therapy as a separate profession when tracking HlB visa entrants. the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy documents that the percentage of newly certified occupational therapists who are foreign graduates has risen from 3 percent in 1985 to more than 20 percent in 1995. The legislation I introduce today would provide necessary assistance to physical therapy and . occupational therapy programs throughout the country to meet the health care demands of the 21st century. In awarding grants. preference would be given to those applicants that seek to educate and train practitioners at clinical sites in either rural or urban medically underserved communities.