[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 139 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 139

To provide for the recapture of unused employment-based immigrant visa 
numbers in order to facilitate improved health care for all persons in 
                           the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 4, 2005

  Mr. Lantos introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for the recapture of unused employment-based immigrant visa 
numbers in order to facilitate improved health care for all persons in 
                           the United States.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Health Improvement and Professionals 
Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The United States is in the midst of a nursing shortage 
        that is expected to intensify as the need for health care 
        services increases.
            (2) The Department of Labor has identified registered 
        nurses has one of the top 5 job growth occupations in the 
        United States, and that more than 1,000,000 new and replacement 
        nurses will be needed by 2012.
            (3) By the year 2012, at least 44 States and the District 
        of Columbia will be experiencing a nursing shortage.
            (4) According to surveys conducted by the Harvard School of 
        Public Health and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, over 
        50 percent of physicians have indicated that the nursing 
        shortage is a leading cause of medical error
            (5) The New England Journal of Medicine has reported that a 
        higher proportion of nursing care is associated with better 
        outcomes for hospitalized patients.
            (6) In spite of this documented need for registered nurses, 
        enrollments in baccalaureate nursing programs at colleges and 
        universities across the United States have declined for 5 
        consecutive years.
            (7) Because of an important and overdue effort by the 
        Department of Homeland Security to clear a backlog of 
        adjustments of status from nonimmigrant employment-based visas 
        to immigrant employment-based visas, the number of employment-
        based visas available to certified nurses living abroad who 
        want to come to the United States has declined to virtually 
        zero.
            (8) The adjustment of status program will not bring new 
        medical personnel to the United States.
            (9) In 2000, Congress passed the American Competitiveness 
        in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000, which, in part, 
        recaptured unused employment-based visas from previous years in 
        order to increase the number of medical and other personnel 
        available to fill critical jobs in the United States.
            (10) Since the passage of that legislation, because of 
        ongoing backlogs, a large number of employment-based visas have 
        not been used, including more than 50,000 visas in fiscal year 
        2003 alone.

SEC. 3. RECAPTURE OF UNUSED EMPLOYMENT-BASED IMMIGRANT VISAS.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the 
number of employment-based visas (as defined in subsection (c)) made 
available for a fiscal year (beginning with fiscal year 2005) shall be 
increased by the number described in subsection (b). Visas made 
available under this section shall only be available in a fiscal year 
to employment-based immigrants under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of 
section 203(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1153(b)).
    (b) Number Available.--
            (1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the number 
        described in this subsection is the difference between the 
        number of employment-based visas that were made available in 
        fiscal years 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 and the number of such 
        visas that were actually used in such fiscal years.
            (2) Reduction.--The number described in paragraph (1) shall 
        be reduced, for each fiscal year after fiscal year 2005, by the 
        cumulative number of immigrant visas actually used under 
        subsection (a) for previous fiscal years.
            (3) Construction.--Nothing in this subsection shall be 
        construed as affecting the application of section 201(c)(3)(C) 
        of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
        1151(c)(3)(C)).
    (c) Employment-Based Visas Defined.--For purposes of this section, 
the term ``employment-based visa'' means an immigrant visa which is 
issued pursuant to the numerical limitation under section 203(b) of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)).
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