Steven Anthony Ballmer. has said. and this is an interesting quote. very relevant to todays discussion: Lower the pay of U.S. professionals to $50.000. and it wont make sense �fo employers to put up with the hassle of doing business in developing countries. In other words. if we lower wages for professionals in this country. maybe our companies wont outsource and go to India or China. The economic benefit of H11B visas. though. is not limited to American companies. The truth is. as my colleagues. Senator DURBIN and Senator GRASSLEY. have pointed out. the top companies applying for HlB visas are actually outsourcing firms from India. known in the industry as "body shops." According to a February 7. 2007. article in BusinessWeek: Data for the fiscal year 2006. which ended last September. showed that 7 of the top 10 applicants for HlB visas are Indian companies. Giants Infosys Technologies and Wipro took the top two spots. with 22.600 and 19.400 applications respectively. In fact. 30 percent of the H1lB visas approved last year went to nine Indian outsourcing firms. In other words. the very same companies that are involved in the HlB3 program of supplying American companies with cheap foreign labor are exactly the same corporations that are involved In outsourcing. providing cheap labor to these very same companies when they move to India. Two sides of the same coin. In my view. the H lB system is working against the best interests of the American middle class. It is displacing skilled American workers. it is lowering our wages. and it is part of the process by which the middle class of this country continues to shrink. Meanwhile. it is creating huge profits for foreign companies that traffic in HlB visas. I do wish to commend Senators DuRBIN and GRASSLEY for their work to reform the HlB program and their efforts to include in the substitute some provisions that strengthen protection for American workers. But as important as these strengthened protections are. the HlB program. which will be increased from 65.000 slots to 115.000 slots. and potentially even 180.000 slots. continues to pose a threat to American jobs and American wages. The question is: Where do we go from here? What is our response to this problem? I could certainly offer an amendment to remove the increase in H lB visas or even to restrict them below the current 65.000 level. But that amendment would be defeated. So where do we go? What is the sensible thing to do? How dto we bring people together around this issue? I think the author of the Congress Daily article I referred to earlier said it qiuite well when he wrote: More importantly for the American taxpayer. the current allocation system for HlB visas conveys a valuable resourceaccess to talented workers who add value to a cornpanys bottom lineat almost no cost. This is a subsidy in violation of market principles for firms that are too quick to appeal to market forces when they are fighting Washington over export controls or other issues. The amendment 1 am offering has two goals. First. raising the HlB1 visa fee from $1.500 to $10.000 will go a long way in telling corporate America they are not going to be able to save money by bringing foreign professionals into this country. and they may want to look at the United States of America to find the workers that they need. If they have to pay $10.000. that will cut back on their margin. Secondly. to the degree it is true that the United States does not have a significant number of skilled workers in certain categoriesand in certain categories that may well be truethis new revenue will be dedicated toward providing scholarships to students who are studying in areas where we currently lack professionals.
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