Stimulus bill contains H1B restrictions

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Monday, February 16, 2009

Pacific Business News (Honolulu)

A provision of the economic stimulus bill that would make it tough for companies that received bailout money to hire foreign skilled workers has survived the debate in both houses of Congress and made it into the final version of the bill, various agencies are reporting.

The amendment was sponsored by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The original version prohibited companies that received money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) from hiring any of the foreign workers under the H1B visa program. The current version is a little softer — it just makes it difficult for the companies to hire them.

The H1B program allows 65,000 skilled immigrants to work in the U.S. every year. Tech companies, such as Microsoft or Redwood City-based Oracle Corp., are often arguing for an increase in the number of workers allowed under the program.

The House passed the stimulus bill on Friday with no Republican votes. The Senate is expected to vote on it later in the day.

Meanwhile, federal authorities on Friday arrested 11 H1B workers in six states, including three from the South Bay, for fraud relating to their visa documents.

This could also have an affect on the ability of construction contractors on Guam to be able to staff up for a very high level of work there, assuming the act applies to Guam... and that the $ level is high enough to worry about staffing.

Do not confuse the Military build up in Guam with H1-B workers. The build up only needs H2 workers. However, this is only because the local contractors and the federal government is trying to keep the cost down by paying an electrician $12.00 per hour.

As for the H1-B workers, Guam should not be exempt from the federal cap, however, corrupt politicians and businessmen are trying to have this passed to keep the wages in Guam low, including Technical/Professionals. It is a shame that with all the unemployed Technical/Professionals in the U.S. and Guam, we are still trying to create loop holes for Big Business to import labor to make a buck.