Speech #1050139696

I am convinced that the best thing government can do to advance the fortunes of the private sector is to stay out of its way. I support this bill because it makes progress toward that end while providing for the regulatory framework and new educational opportunities to protect and promote American workers. By raising the arbitrary cap on temporary immigrant visas for skilled foreign workersa cap set in 1990. when the Democrats controlled Congress and the American economy was in recessionthis legislation gets government out of the way of American companies. universities. and research labs which simply cannot hire the skilled professionals they need in the domestic labor market because of an arbitrary. anachronistic cap on H1B visas that does not reflect the forces of supply and demand in the American economy today. Opponents of this legislation surely cannot believe that government knows better than business whats best for business in America. We cannot and should not condemn American companies for wishing to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Indeed. we should encourage the companies that employ our citizens. contribute to our tax base. and produce the goods and services we consume daily to retain the competitive edge that has sustained them by whatever means are available within the law. If we do not consent to raising the cap on HlB visas for skilled foreign workers. we will be handicapping the very American companies and their employees we profess to support as legislators empowered by the people to advance the public interest. Critics having charged that this legislation subordinates the public interest to the private interests of American companies engaged in a vast conspiracy to hoodwink Congress and the American people so that they may replace American professionals with skilled foreign workers content with belowmarket salaries and no benefits. Had these critics read our bill or spoken with those of us who support it. they would have had to devise new arguments against raising the H1B cap by virtue of the emptiness of their own rhetoric. It is a fact that this legislation penalizes any employer which lays off an American worker in order to replace him with an HlB visa holder and pays that individual anything less than the average prevailing wage in that line of worka standard which often results in a higher salary than made by American entrylevel workers. It is also a fact that the Department of Labor is empowered under the law to investigate and penalize willful abuse of the HlB visa program and has done so repeatedly since the program began in 1990a fact which disarms those militants who insist that there exist rampant fraud and abuse within the H1B market. This is not a debate about the facts. which are unambiguous. This is a debate about the way in which American society responds to the new challenges and opportunities offered by economic globalization and a knowledgebased economy.