Bill to protect US jobs

It will also help to crack down on work visa abuse, the lawmakers said

A Bill backing key changes in the H-1B programme has been reintroduced in the US Congress by two lawmakers.

The Bill had faced opposition last year in Congress.

“In order for America to lead again, we need to ensure we can retain the world’s best and brightest talent. At the same time, we also need to make sure programmes are not abused to allow companies to outsource and hire cheap foreign labour from abroad to replace American workers,” Republican Darrell Issa said.

“The legislation we’re introducing today does both. It will ensure that our valuable high-skilled immigration spots are used by companies when the positions cannot be filled by the existing workforce,” Mr Issa said.

By raising the salary to a level more in-line with the average American salary for these positions, it would help cut down on abuse by removing the profit incentive and ensuring these positions remain available for companies who truly need them, a media release said.

“Curbing abuse of the H-1B system will protect American jobs and help ensure that visas are available for innovators who need them to maintain a competitive workforce,” Mr Scott Peters said.

“This bipartisan Bill makes one of the muchneeded updates to our high-skilled visa system to level the playing field and help prevent companies from taking advantage of the system to offshore jobs,” the Congressman said.

The two lawmakers claimed that the legislation would cut down on abuse by eliminating the Masters degree exemption, which has been abused as foreign workers seeking H-1B visas have increasingly sought and obtained low-quality- certificates to meet the requirements for an exemption just to qualify for H-1B, instead of keeping the positions open for truly high-skilled positions that companies cannot fill domestically.