Speech #1050113047

Inaction on this issue is not very different from outright restriction. because it will result in such massive backlogs. that with todays fastmoving product cycles. access to these key professionals will be for all practical purposes barely possible. Who will benefit from restricting the entry of these skilled workers? "On a daily basis. our competitors in Tokyo scheme to stop the momentum of the American semiconductor and computer industries." testified Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers. "Even if they tried. they could not come up with a better plan to cut off our supply of critical engineering talent than by halting immigration. Unfortunately. it appears they may have the United States government as their ally." At a hearing on a different topic held just this week in the Judiciary Committee we heard views from major executives about some issues facing the software industry. Despite differing opinions on these other important issues. the business leaders testifying were unanimous when the topic was brought up of alleviating the pending crisis involving H1B visas. Scott McNealy. President and CEO of Sun Microsystems. noted that two of the four founders of his company. which now employs over 20.000 Americans. were foreignborn Individuals who entered the country via the employmentbased immigration system. "I cannot imagine having those two unbelievable national treasures not being allowed in." he said. "And by the way. if you go down through the payroll of our organization. for every legal immigrant that we have hired and put on the payroll. they have created vast amounts of wealth and jobs and a byproductwonderful byproducts for our economy and for the planet as a whole." Bill Gates. Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation stated. "Microsoft is in strong agreement that raising these caps to allow very skilled legal immigrants to come in would be a good thing for the technology industry and for the country. We particularly have a lot of people who come to the U.S. to be educated. and it seems a shame when theyve been educated here. not to allow them to stay in the country and to take what theyve learned and contribute to companies like ours and many others." Jim Barksdale. President and CEO. Netscape Communications testified. "We employ an awful lot of legal immigrants. who are very bright people and make a great contribution and more than earn their keep and we would like to see the limit raised." Perhaps the clearest statement about what may be at stake came from Michael Dell. Chairman and CEO of Dell Computer. He told the Committee. "These companies are global companies and if this work does not occur on U.S. soil it occurs on some other soils. We are disarming the economy of the United States of America if we dont allow these folks to come and stay in this country." The American Competitiveness Act is endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. the National Association of Manufacturers. the American Electronics Association. the Electronics Industry Association. the Business Software Alliance. the Information Technology Association of America. American Business for Legal Immigration. the American Immigration Lawyers Association. the American Council of International Personnel. the National Technical Services Association. the Computing Technology Industries Association. and the United States Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce. This issue is also extremely important to Americas academic community. At the February 25 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Stephen Director. Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. testified as a representative of the nations higher education community. His testimony. calling for an increase in H1B visas and a permanent solution for universities on prevailing wage issues. was endorsed by the American Council on Education. the Association of American Universities. the College and University Personnel Association. the Council of Graduate Schools. NAFSA: Association of International Educators and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. As noted in the testimony. the combined memberships of these associations represent over 2.000 U.S. colleges and universities. As we move forward. Mr. President. people will no doubt ask whether there are additional measures to protect against abuse of the H1B program that can be enacted without nullifying efforts to increase high tech companies access to skilled workers. On that issue let me say that we must crack down on anyone who would abuse the system. As Ive noted. this bill contains substantially larger fines for those engaged in willful violations and establishes long probationary periods for such egregious violators.