Early in the 105th Congress, leaders of the nation's computer industry began complaining that, at 65,000, the number of high-tech visas was too low and that high-skilled jobs were going unfilled for lack of qualified American workers. Executives complained that the situation was so dire that it was affecting the ability of the American computer industry to compete in the global market.

Their arguments, the lobbying of industry groups, and a certain amount of animosity toward labor unions by a Republican-controlled Congress helped convince key members of Congress that a problem existed.

In September, after months of negotiation between members of Congress and the White House, agreement was reached on a compromise bill that would increase the number of high-tech visas, also known as H-1B visas, from the current 65,000 per year to 115,000 in fiscal years 1999 and 2000. The number would drop to 107,500 in fiscal year 2001, and return to 65,000 in fiscal year 2002. The compromise legislation included provisions designed to require evidence of an actual need for additional temporary foreign workers, protect the rights of American workers, and ensure that the foreign workers were covered under existing American labor laws.

Even after the compromise was reached, the legislation nearly fell victim to the traditional end-of-session political turmoil that affects many pieces of legislation. When Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who strongly supported the bill, attempted to bring it to a vote in the waning days of the session, using the traditional unanimous consent calendar, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) objected, claiming that a high-tech worker shortage did not exist. At the end of a session, when time is at a premium, such an objection usually spells defeat for a bill. This time, however, the legislation was attached to the monstrous $520 billion omnibus budget bill that both houses passed just before hurrying home to campaign for re-election. Sen. Harkin ultimately voted in favor of the omnibus bill.

The bill changes current law in several areas. Employers are now required to pay full-time H-1B workers their full wages even if there is not enough work for them to do. This provision presumably will encourage employers to think carefully before applying for a visa for a foreign worker.

Other parts of the legislation are designed to discourage reductions in the American workforce to make way for foreign workers. The law stipulates that H-1B-dependent companies (generally, those whose workforces include 15 percent or more H-1B workers) must guarantee that they will not lay off an American employee in the same job 90 days before or after the company files a petition for an H-1B worker. Employers who are found to have willfully violated the law by underpaying H-1B workers or by laying off American workers are subject to a three-year debarment from the program and a $35,000 fine.

The law also requires employers (except universities and similar institutions) to pay a fee of $500 per H-1B visa application, with the money going to provide scholarships for students studying engineering, math, and computer science, and to support federal job training services. The fee is expected to raise some $75 million per year between now and 2002, when it expires. That provision was not enough to mollify Rep. Ron Klink (D-Pa.), who opposed the bill. "What good is a scholarship if people going to college now can't get hired?" he asked. His view was echoed by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who decried the bill as "about appeasing big businesses." Rohrabacher said the law would "flood the market with people from overseas who will work for less money."

Supporters of the new law were ecstatic about having prevailed. Sandy Boyd, director of human resources policy for the National Association of Manufacturers, called it "a bill that is in the best interest of our nation's economy." Boyd said, "We were all caught off-guard by the skyrocketing need for skilled information technology workers, which has resulted in a serious shortage of qualified applicants." According to the U.S. Department of Labor, of the 398,324 H-1B visa petitions filed in 1997, just 5,585, or 1.4 percent, were for mechanical engineers. Occupations with the highest number of petitions filed were computer-related (177,034), therapists (103,097), accountants (9,865), and physicians (7,360).

The Labor Department estimates that 352,000 mechanical engineers currently are employed in the United States, with an unemployment rate of 1.4 percent. Francis Dietz works in ASME Government Relations in Washington, D.C.

Francis Dietz works in ASME's Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C.

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