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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: laura_bush who wrote (24814)	8/9/2003 12:33:21 AM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

yeah thats LR, if you read the msg board you see there are a whole bunch of visa workers posting how much they deserve to stay here etc. LR is a telecom industry publication and people are afraid they are going to be sent home. I don't pay much mind to a survey of LR readers for that reason. I was talking about the IEEE guys presentation to the commerce committee I wanted you to read. Here are his proposals, I believe they will mostly be adopted (if Bush doesn't get in the way) The current non-immigrant system that brings in temporary foreign workers with H-1B (specialty occupations) and L-1 (intra-company transfers) visas has accelerated movement of work offshore as temporary workers in management positions outsource work to overseas colleagues, and as temporary workers who have returned home use their knowledge and connections in the U.S. market to competitively bid for outsourced work. A policy shift away from reliance on guest workers and towards permanent immigration would help minimize this problem. Increasing reliance on high tech temporary workers has had other negative impacts apart from increased unemployment. Charges of abuse and exploitation of temporary workers are on the rise. Similarly, there are frequent reports of displaced American engineers and IT workers being forced to train their L-1 visa replacements as a condition of their severance package. The H-1B and L-1 visa programs should be reformed to limit these abuses and bring the programs back in line with Congress’ original intent. Much engineering and information technology work needs to be done onsite in the U.S., and American workers should have preference over foreign guest workers. Additionally, Congress should monitor current World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services’ (GATS) mode 4, movement of natural persons, negotiations. Many countries have pushed the U.S. to make it even easier to misuse the H-1B and L-1 visas. Another possible policy option is to identify appropriate tax and other financial incentives needed to encourage employers to create and retain more high wage/high value added manufacturing and service sector jobs by establishing and maintaining more high end research, design, development and manufacturing facilities in the United States. Current offshore outsourcing has affected U.S. workers more than larger U.S. companies, so another appropriate policy response is to provide assistance to employed, underemployed and dislocated workers in the form of tax incentives to help pay for lifelong learning (continuing education and training), including tax credits for employers that offer training or retraining in high demand technical, management and marketing skills; tax-favored savings accounts to help pay for job and career-related education and training expenses incurred by individual taxpayers; and possibly even relocation accounts to help workers move from low growth to high growth labor markets. And finally, related to national security considerations, Congress may wish to increase enforcement of “deemed export laws” to reduce the likelihood that mission critical and other sensitive technologies will be transferred overseas through global outsourcing of scientific and engineering jobs.