Action Alert

As the House votes on H.R. 441, the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act, FAIR urges members of Congress to resist the temptation to rely on more foreign labor as the cure-all for temporary labor shortages.

Although H.R. 441 would increase only moderately the overall number of foreign workers who enter the United States, it represents another in a seemingly endless string of efforts to increase our nation's reliance on others to do jobs we should do ourselves.

Big agricultural-business interests are lobbying to ease the entry of cheap foreign farm labor into the United States and give amnesty to more than a half-million illegal aliens. Silicon Valley is prodding Congress to throw-open the high-tech job market to worldwide competition and virtually eliminate limits on the number of foreign workers who can take some of America's best paying jobs.

These measures, and others that increase our reliance on foreign labor, hurt American workers and threaten our nation's long-term economic well being.

Many businesses argue they need foreign workers because American workers either cannot or will not perform certain jobs or they lack the necessary skills and education. The answer to the former is higher wages and better working conditions. The answer to the latter is investing in the training of domestic workers and educating American students in the disciplines they will need to succeed in the next century's high-tech economy.

Corporate America, agricultural business interests, and the medical community can and should recruit and train American workers for American jobs.

FAIR, 11/99.