Senate Stalls Hike in Skilled-Worker Visas

High-tech companies will have to wait at least until September to hire additional foreign workers, as the Senate recessed Friday without passing legislation that would authorize increased numbers of temporary visas after the White House raised objections.

The legislation would lift the current cap on visas for these foreign engineers and other highly skilled workers, allowing about 200,000 more of them into the country over the next five years.

But Clinton administration officials raised a number of concerns about the proposal. Among other things, the White House wants to lower the number of workers who would be allowed into the United States, as well as provide more money to train American workers for these jobs.

Both administration and congressional officials expressed confidence that differences could be resolved when Congress returns from its August recess.

The two-page White House list of concerns was revealed a week after key Republican lawmakers announced a compromise between two bills that had been pending on Capitol Hill for several months.

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The current annual allotment of 65,000 visas for the foreign-born skilled workers was reached May 7. The pending legislation would allow 20,000 additional visas, known as H1-Bs, to be issued for the current fiscal year, which ends Oct. 1. And the measure would raise the cap on such visas to 95,000 next year, 105,000 in 2000, and 115,000 for each of the next two years.

The White House has asked that the cap return to 65,000 after 2000.

Other key changes sought by the administration include an increase on the fees companies must pay when applying for the temporary visas and placing the secretary of Labor in charge of arbitrating any complaints of abuse.

In addition, the administration offered a new definition of which companies would be considered “H1-B dependent” and therefore have to swear that they had tried to recruit domestically and had not recently laid off Americans before applying for visas. The current proposal forces only companies in which 15% of the work force is foreign to make such declarations. The White House wants such provisions to apply to firms with 10% foreign employees (20% for companies with 50 or fewer workers).

Jenny Eisen, of Santa Clara-based Intel Corp., expressed chagrin over the delay. “It’s really a detriment to our hiring and recruitment,” she said. “Every month that goes by is a month longer that people are either off the payroll or can’t be hired.”

But Eisen, whose firm is part of a coalition of companies that has been lobbying Congress on the issue for months, said that the White House concerns could likely be resolved without jeopardizing the legislation.

“We’re all anxious just to have a vote and see closure on this bill,” she said.

Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), the legislation’s sponsor, also said that he was dismayed at the delay and criticized the White House for bringing up additional issues late in the negotiating process.

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“We certainly have the votes . . . to pass our bill in both chambers, but we’re happy to talk to the administration,” Abraham said through a spokesman. “While they have delayed passage, they haven’t prevented passage.”

Jake Siewert of the National Economic Council at the White House agreed with that assessment. “There’s no reason why we can’t fix [the bill] and reach a reasonable compromise,” he said. “We’re willing to negotiate and get this done.”