Speech #1090084815

I thank Senator BYRD for offering the amendment. There is a legitimate national interest in deciding how many of these visas should be allowed. and in deciding how much the numbers should be increased. if any. The matter came up before the Judiciary Committee. of which I am a member. within the last 2 weeks. the week before last. There was a good deal of discussion and disagreement and my amendment. almost identical to the amendment Senator BYRD is offering today. did not fully come out of committee. The Judiciary Committee is not a committee that is in any way backward looking and is not a committee that has no interest in having a fair immigration policy. but we had very strong disagreements within our committee regarding whether increases in H1B visas and other permanent work visas were justified. Senator BYRD is correct in raising the matter now and objecting and offering this amendment to fix itwhat came out of the Judiciary Committee. The current bill language will increase the HlB visa cap by over 30.000 a year and increase the number of permanent employmentbased immigrants. not temporary. by 90.000 a year. Additionally. the current bill language allows all family members of the workers to immigrate to the U.S. and exempts family members from being subjected to the cap. They are currently allowed to immigrate. but are subjected to the annual cap. These changes compose a huge. important policy statement. These extra visas will indeed increase revenue. because an additional fee will be charged for each of these additional November 2. 2005 CONGRE visas. but this is not just a budget decision. Now lets be frank. We are in a national discussion about immigration. We need to be honest with ourselves. We need to do the right thing.