Speech #1050207851

That is the nature of any legislative process. What is important is that we have come up with a bill that both responds to the needs of American industry and adds protections for American workers. Under the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act. the H1B quota will be set at 115.000 in 1999 and 2000. and 107.500 in 2001. Then the quota will return to 65.000 (at which time the attestations will sunset). The employers most prone to abusing the H1B program are called "job contractors" or "job shops". Much. or all. of their workforces are composed of foreign workers on H1B visas. Many of these companies make no pretense of looking for American workers and are in business to contract their H1Bs out to other companies. The companies to which the H1Bs are contracted benefit in that the wages paid to the foreign workers are often well below what comparable Americans would receive. Also. the companies dont have to shoulder the obligations of being the legally recognized employersthe job contractors/ shops remain the official employers. Under the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act. the nolay off/ nondisplacement and recruitment attestations will apply principally to job contractors/shops. defined in the bill (for larger companies) as those employers 15% or more of whose workforces are composed of H1B workers. These businesses. designated as "H1Bdependent". will be subject to the attestations in those instances where they petition for HiBs without masters degrees in high technology fields or where they plan to pay the H1Bs