[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 15, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H1052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE IMPORTANCE OF ADDRESSING THE ISSUE OF H1B VISAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I joined a number of colleagues this 
morning, some of whom will be speaking here this afternoon, about the 
importance of addressing the issue of H1B visas.
  As I visit with local business leaders in central Texas, I know that 
the number one high technology issue in our community, and I think 
across this country, is work force development, the fact that we could 
have and do have already some serious shortages of skilled workers that 
can slow down the expansion that has fueled our economic growth 
throughout the country.
  From offices regularly assisting our local high-tech companies in 
securing H1B visas, I also know that this is one of the answers that 
can assist us in addressing this worker shortage.
  One of the reasons that central Texas prospers is that we live the 
lyrics of a great Lyle Lovett song: Oh, no, you are not from Texas, but 
Texas wants you anyway. And it is because we have been able to reach 
out and bring the best and brightest, not only from all over the 
country but from all over the world, that we have been able to keep our 
high-tech economy booming.
  I support this bipartisan effort to get increases in the number of 
visas for highly-skilled high-tech workers to address this problem of 
worker shortage. It is a stopgap measure, however. We are only at March 
and we are already running out of the H1B visas. We need to solve the 
problem for our high-tech companies now, but we need to realize that 
this is not a permanent solution.
  That is why this legislation also increases the fees for getting 
these visas, and then will plow that money back into developing our 
domestic work force and helping our teachers and our young people 
pursue careers in technology.
  I believe that it is important also that we not only focus on the 
amount or the number of visas, or the amount of the money that will be 
charged to get them, but on the entire system that the Immigration 
Service and the Department of Labor use in addressing this issue.
  I find it a system that is so plagued with bureaucracy that it is 
almost a daily problem for my office in Austin, as well as for the many 
companies with whom we work. It is time that that bureaucracy move into 
the electronic age in which our businesses operate at present.

                              {time}  1630

  So a principal focus of this bill is to see that the Immigration 
Service and the Department of Labor recognize that many people search 
for jobs now over the Internet and recognize those postings to fulfill 
the statutory requirements, and that we move to a system where one can 
file for an application on-line, where one can track an application on-
line, and we reduce the level of bureaucracy in this entire process.
  I am pleased to join in this bipartisan effort. I believe that it 
will be successful. There is already some legislation moving in the 
Senate. The White House has recently announced an interest in this 
topic. With good bipartisan support here, there is no reason that we 
should not be able to act and fulfill this very definite need in the 
very near future.

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