This is very good news for factory code conversion companies. WASHINGTON - A bill that would have increased the number of U.S. visas granted to foreign high-tech workers died in the Senate yesterday, with backers of the bill warning its demise could have dire consequences as the computer industry tries to solve the millennium bug.
Both the House and the Senate had passed earlier versions of the bill, and a compromise with the White House had been worked out last month. However, a small number of senators were able to block a vote on the bill late yesterday, killing chance of its passage this year.
Under current law, 65,000 H-1B visas are granted annually to noncitizen computer programmers and other highly skilled professionals to work in the United States for up to six years. The bill would have nearly doubled that, to 115,000 for the next two years, and 107,500 in the third year. After that, the level would drop back to 65,000.
From Microsoft's Bill Gates on down, the information-technology industry has lobbied intensely for the increase. Under the proposal, companies that depend on temporary foreign help would have had to attest that they have recruited American workers and that they had not laid off an American employee to hire a foreign worker.
"This is a severe problem, and it is especially severe at this time," said Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., the bill's chief sponsor, referring to the millennium bug, which may cause some computer systems to fail if their internal clocks do not recognize the year 2000.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, an opponent of the bill, said he did not think there was a shortage of high-tech American workers at this time but was willing to take another look at the issue next year.
Although high-tech companies had lobbied to increase the cap on foreign workers, some lawmakers with ties to organized labor opposed it, because they said it could hurt American workers and they feared exploitation of foreign workers.
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