Update on Pending H1B Bills - May 2000
Posted May 24, 2000

Our office continues to receive telephone calls and Email messages requesting the status of the various H1B Bills which have been pending in the Senate and the House of Representatives since earlier this year. The Bills have been summarized in earlier issues of the MurthyBulletin, since both S. 2045 and H.R. 3983 contain provisions that not only raise the H1B cap but also substantially improve the Permanent Residency or "Green Card" process.

As of the week of May 8, 2000, the U.S. Senate has once again postponed a final vote on S.2045, the Hatch/Abraham H1B Bill because of ongoing negotiations about other matters. Companies and their representatives should continue to urge their members of Congress to support S.2045 and vote for its passage.

Besides the Bill in the U.S. Senate, there are two separate Bills that continue to be worked on in the House of Representatives. The first is H.R. 4227, the Smith H1B Bill, which was marked up by the House Judiciary Committee on May 9 and May 10, 2000. This is the Bill that the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and many of its business partners have opposed strenuously because there are serious concerns about various aspects of this Bill. This Bill has also been discussed in earlier issues of the MurthyBulletin. So far, only two minor amendments to the various provisions in this Smith Bill have been passed by the Committee.

The Dreier / Lofgren Bill, H.R. 3983, has the strong support of AILA and its business partners, and is widely considered to be the only Bill likely to garner sufficient bipartisan support to actually pass the House. Please urge your elected representatives to support H.R. 3983 since it is the only balanced, bipartisan Bill that protects U.S. employers that need high tech professionals, and provides for other short-term and long-term solutions to make the employment-based immigration process convenient and timely for both employers and employees.

In the meanwhile, President Clinton and the White House are in support of a modified version of H.R. 3983 - the Dreier / Lofgren Bill mentioned above. The White House wants to raise the H1B filing fee per H1B Petition to $3,000 for H1B dependent companies and increase the percentage of H1Bs that would be set aside for those with a Master's Degree, from 40% in 2001 to 50% in 2003. The Administration would also wish to include other provisions not related to H1Bs or employment-based immigration: changes under NACARA, as well as a change in the Registry date to 1986. For more on Registry, kindly refer to the May 11, 2000 and April 22, 2000 issues of the MurthyBulletin.

We hope you will continue to lobby with both your Senators and members of the House of Representatives urging them to approve legislation (S. 2045 and H.R. 3983) that would provide much needed relief in this rapidly expanding high technology sector, which is suffering an acute shortage of skilled workers.