Speech #1050192237

In fact. the final number by the end of August that we have is 208.558 workers. that is that we know about. If this was on the legitimate. this whole argument about not liking the substitute. our friends in industry would not have disagreed so much with attesting to the fact that they could not find American workers. or that they were not firing American workers. See. the fact of the matter is that if they really are searching for Americans for these jobs. or if they are not displacing an American worker. then they should not have any difficulty then attesting to that fact in order to get H1B visas. But the industry has been screaming about the attestation. The committees own report says that "it is imperative that we build into the HlB program adequate protection for U.S. workers." Continuing to quote from the report from the committee in the House. "the most simple. most basic protection that can be given to any American worker is a guarantee that he or she will not be fired by an employer and replaced by a foreign worker. More broadly stated. an employer should not in the same instance fire an American worker and bring on a foreign worker when the American worker is wellqualified to do the work intended for the foreign worker. The H1B program currently contains no such guarantee." The underlying bill that we are trying to substitute provides protection for only a small percentage. about 1 percent. of the HlB workers that are going to be brought into this country. This substitute has that attestation provision for all of those workers and that. in fact. is the difference. Mr.