Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 23:13:41 -0800 From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: Feinstein backs increase in H-1B To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter California Senator Dianne Feinstein has been all over the map on the H-1B and related issues. On occasion she has publicly recognized that there are serious problems with H-1B, but more often she has toed the industry party line. Today Feinstein said that she supports an increase in the H-1B cap. The enclosed article states her reason: Speaking to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group in San Jose, Feinstein said she will support an increase in the H1B because "we have to ensure that we have the best and the brightest people here," she said. I'm sure that even Feinstein knows that "the best and the brightest" in the computer field make well over $100,000 per year. Yet, the government data show that the computer-related H-1Bs in 2003 (the latest data) had a median salary of $60,000, with a 75th percentile of $73,000 (Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-1B): Fiscal Year 2003, October 2002 to September 2003, http://uscis.gov/graphics/aboutus/ repsstudies/h1b/index.htm). Even allowing for the underpayment of H-1Bs, you can see that the vast majority of H-1Bs are NOT "the best and the brightest." Some industry lobbyists meet with Feinstein and tell her that the H-1Bs are "the best and the brightest" and she'll take it at face value. But she doesn't want to hear that claim rebutted, for example as I've done in the last paragraph (lots more data on this in my university law journal article). To my knowledge, Feinstein has never met with any engineering organization which is critical of H-1B. At one point a couple of years ago, one organization finally did get a meeting scheduled with her, but then her office mysteriously canceled it. Why risk losing all those industry campaign funds?, she must think. Recall Sen. Bennett's statement, "Once it's clear (the visa bill) is going to get through, everybody signs up so nobody can be in the position of being accused of being against high tech. There were, in fact, a whole lot of folks against it, but because they are tapping the high-tech community for campaign contributions, they don't want to admit that in public" Carolyn Lochhead, Bill to Boost Tech Visas Sails Through Congress: Clinton Expected to Sign Popular Measure, San Francisco Chronicle}, October 4, 2000}. The other interesting comment today is According to [National Semiconductor CEO] Halla, [Treasury Secretary] Snow said it is unrealistic in an election year to expect Congress to raise the current annual limit of 65,000 H-1B visas. That's "unacceptable because the pipeline isn't full of our own math and science whiz kids right now," Halla said. This is pure playacting. ALL of the increases in the H-1B program have come in ELECTION YEARS. There were the two big ones in 1998 and 2000, and then the 20,000 increase in 2004. In fact two of those years were not only congressional election years, but also presidential election years. Election years are the times in which the politicians are most in need of campaign funds, right? In my experience, Feinstein is a pretty reliable barometer. In 2003, Feinstein talked about abuses of the H-1B program, for instance in http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/Senate03.txt and sure enough, Congress allowed the higher cap enacted in 2000 to sunset. In 1998, she said we needed H-1Bs, and that that need was "an indictment of our educational system" for not producing enough engineers (in that year, many older engineers could not get engineering work, in spite of the boom). Now she is supporting an increase. I think she has a good sense of which way the wind is blowing on this issue, and that she sees that an increase is coming. As the Bennett quote above shows, she wants to show the industry she voted on the correct side. Norm http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/03/20/daily13.html Feinstein calls for increase in H1B visas Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal - 2:50 PM PST Monday by Timothy Roberts U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said on Monday that she supports an increase in H1B visas, a reduction of troops in Iraq and tighter controls on greenhouse gases emissions. Speaking to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group in San Jose, Feinstein said she will support an increase in the H1B because "we have to ensure that we have the best and the brightest people here," she said. A total of 65,000 are allowed the current fiscal year, which began in October. That number was filled by last August, and executives from technology and other companies have been calling for more. But as visa numbers go up, the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq should go down, she said. "By the end of the year we should see a substantial reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq," she said. The U.S. mission in Iraq should be to focused on logistics and the training of Iraqi soldiers, she said. California's senior senator, who is running for re-election this year, also said she will introduce legislation aimed at reducing green house gases that cause global warming. "The science is indisputable," Feinstein said. "Global warming is happening." The potential harm includes the melting of the California snow cap that provides drinking water for 16 million people in southern California. Her legislation, which is expected to be brought up April 4 in the Senate Energy Committee Climate conference, would set caps on businesses that emit greenhouse gases based on the current year and then gradually lower them through the yea 2020. The legislation would establish a trading system, allowing low emitters to sell credits to companies with greater emissions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502 304.html?referrer=emailarticle Snow Doubtful About High-Tech Visas U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, right, believes there is little chance Congress will increase the number of visas to let skilled engineers work in the country, National Semiconductor chief executive Brian L. Halla said. According to Halla, Snow said it is unrealistic in an election year to expect Congress to raise the current annual limit of 65,000 H-1B visas. That's "unacceptable because the pipeline isn't full of our own math and science whiz kids right now," Halla said. The chief executive said Snow made the comment to executives during a visit on March 2 to the company's headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif.