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Opening Statements
Chairman Abraham (R-MI): Since passage of last year’s H-1B increase bill, the Chairman said, “the case for maintaining an adequate supply of H-1B visas has grown stronger.” He said last year’s increase was “insufficient due to the tight labor market, increasing globalization, the rapid pace of the high tech sector, and the backlog of visas that developed from the prior year.” Senator Abraham said foreign countries are actively encouraging U.S. high tech firms to move overseas so they can avoid H-1B limits. He also added that the INS’s recent error - which led to 20,000 too many H-1B visas being issued in FY 99 - may “shortchange” employers who need H-1B workers. The Chairman concluded by saying that “even though political resistance has thus far prevented a higher H-1B cap…it’s imprudent to set the H-1B cap too close to anticipated usage, since it engenders many problems for both employers and the U.S. government.”
Senator Charles Robb (D-VA): Senator Robb said raising the H-1B caps is only a short-term solution to the nation’s high tech labor shortage. He emphasized that the long-term challenge is to educate our workforce so it has the skills to fill the “350,000 vacant information technology jobs in this country.” Senator Robb said his recently introduced bill, the Helping Improve Technology Education and Competitiveness “HITEC” Act (S. 1645) will begin addressing these long-term needs by offering an unlimited number of five-year visas for foreign workers who graduate from American universities with degrees in high tech fields and who receive job offers paying at least $60,000 per year. Under his bill, Robb explained, businesses would have to pay $1,000 for each visa and could extend the visa for an additional $500. The revenue generated would provide funding for grants to improve the math, science, and technology education in American public schools. He said education, not more immigration, is the answer to the nation’s high tech labor shortage. Raising the H-1B caps would also increase the number of foreign workers in industries that do not have labor shortages, Robb said.
Susan DeFife (President and CEO, WomenConnect.com) said the demand for high-tech workers in our economy will “continue to far exceed the supply.” She said her companies, and the high tech industry, need more foreign workers because they “are fueling the technology revolution and making significant contributions to the strong economy we now enjoy.” Her company has many job openings that cannot be filled, she said. Consequently her company, and other high tech companies like it, has three options: limit growth; steal employees from other companies; or move overseas. All three options are bad for business and the economy she stated. Ms. DeFife said she “understand(s) the desire to provide jobs to American citizens, but in an economy where unemployment is at record lows, it is unrealistic to believe we can fill all of the new jobs being created within the technology industry with the workers we have.” Thus, she concluded, an H-1B increase is crucial.
Julie Holdren (President and CEO, the Olympus Group) said she supports an H-1B increase because the high tech industry has an “unquenchable need for skilled information technology workers.” These workers, she contended, are responsible for the economic growth in the high tech industry. However, she warned “if we don’t concern ourselves with meeting the hiring needs of American employers, we will lose the benefits we are reaping today.” She also claimed that, “for every H-1B worker I employ, I am able to hire ten more American workers.” She emphasized that H-1B workers create “many new job opportunities for domestic workers.”
Robert D. Atkinson (Progressive Policy Institute) said the three best ways to meet today’s high tech workforce needs are to improve the education and skills of children in grades K-12, improve the technology skills of the current high tech workforce, and increase the number of H-1B workers available to technology firms. He suggested creating Regional Skills Alliances - industry-led, independently staffed collaborations among industry firms - which would “identify common areas of skills shortages and develop and implement effective training solutions.”
Roberta Katz (CEO, the Technology Network) said the United States is facing a “shortage in the number of skilled professionals necessary to support the technology industry’s continued growth.” Unless increasing the H-1B caps closes this gap, “America’s technological and economic leadership will be jeopardized,” she said. She added that this is not an immigration issue, but instead, a competitiveness issue because American schools and universities are not producing enough technically trained American-born professionals.
William Archey (President and CEO, American Electronics Association warned that shortages of high tech workers are imposing economic and technological costs on the U.S. by preventing American high tech firms from competing globally. “Continuing shortages of high tech professionals diminish the capacity of America’s most dynamic businesses to bring existing and innovative new products and services to the market in the most cost-efficient, internationally competitive manner,” he said.
The result, he charged, hurts “not just the businesses directly affected, but the overall national economy.” The only short-term solution to the high tech labor shortage is to increase the H-1B caps, which is an “absolute imperative,” he said.
Question and Answer
Senator Kennedy asked the panel why, if there is indeed a high tech labor shortage, wages in the industry have remained flat over the past several years. Kennedy suggested that industry wage rates are below what they should be to attract skilled professionals.
Ms. DeFife said that the total benefits package for high tech professionals is generally very attractive (including stock options) and more than makes up for starting salaries which may not have increased substantially in recent years. Senator Kennedy said he thinks high tech companies could attract more workers that are qualified if wages in the industry increased.
Senator Feinstein asked the panel whether their companies would support establishing a scholarship program targeted toward improving the skills of disadvantaged youths in high tech fields. The witnesses said that would be a positive step. Mr. Archey said his member companies are already doing that.
Chairman Abraham asked whether high tech companies are moving overseas because they cannot find qualified workers to fill their job openings. All of the witnesses said companies moving overseas are a major problem. Chairman Abraham then asked whether a sufficient labor supply would be available if Congress enacted Senator Robb’s bill and the H-1B cap returned to 65,000 per year. The panelists said no. Mr. Archey said it “would not come close” to solving high tech labor shortages. Archey then suggested that foreign workers who receive high tech degrees should automatically receive legal permanent residency in the U.S. as an incentive to remain in the country and meet high tech labor needs.
Comment
Senator Abraham clearly designed the hearing to build support for an H-1B increase. There were no witnesses who disputed the industry’s claims that there is a high tech labor shortage or questioned the wisdom of subjecting American high tech workers to unlimited foreign competition for their jobs, as Senator Robb’s bill would. Supporters of his plan are trying to convince Congress that it is an alternative to an H-1B increase, when in fact, it could potentially have catastrophic consequences for U.S. high tech workers. Senator Robb’s plan would not replace the H-1B program; it would simply be in addition to it. Establishing a new program for foreign workers with graduate degrees who have a total benefits package of at least $60,000 would effectively provide another option for most current H-1B workers and thereby free-up more visas for others. Chairman Abraham did not indicate when his subcommittee would consider an H-1B bill.
FAIR 10/99
