[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 120 (Tuesday, August 2, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               NON-IMMIGRANT NURSES VISA REAUTHORIZATION

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, August 1, 2011

  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 
1933--To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify the 
requirements for admission of nonimmigrant nurses in health 
professional shortage areas.
  A number of hospitals with unique circumstances experience a great 
difficulty in attracting American nurses. Hospitals serving mostly poor 
patients have special difficulties. Some hospitals in rural areas do 
also. For example: St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center is 
located on the South side of Chicago in the Englewood Community. It is 
the only remaining hospital in an area with a census in excess of 
100,000 and the patient base is almost entirely poverty care or charity 
care. St. Bernard almost closed its doors in 1992, primarily because of 
its inability to attract health care professionals, most importantly 
registered nurses.
  H.R. 1933 reauthorizes the program for an additional three years. The 
number of visas that may be issued in each fiscal year cannot exceed 
300. An alien may be admitted for three years and this stay may be 
extended once for an additional three years (the possibility of an 
extension is new with H.R. 1933). Furthermore, H.R. 1933 allows an H-1C 
nurse to be able to switch employment between any of the 14 H-1C-
eligible hospitals. This prevents those nurses here through this 
program to have some flexibility in their employment options in the 
event they run into any hardship at the hospital where they are 
employed.
  The Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act, signed into law in 
1999 created a new H-1C temporary visa program for registered nurses. 
The program was modeled after the expired H-1A temporary nursing visa 
program but limited the number of visas that could be issued to 500 a 
year and only allowed in-need hospitals who met certain criteria to 
petition for alien nurses. To be able to petition for an alien, an 
employer had to meet four basic conditions. First, the employer must 
have been located in a health professional shortage area as designated 
by the Department of Health and Human Services. Second, the employer 
must have had at least 190 acute care beds. Third, a certain percentage 
(35 percent) of the employer's patients must have been Medicare 
patients. Fourth, a certain percentage (28 percent) of patients must 
have been Medicaid patients.
  Employers had to make certain attestations pertaining to payment of a 
wage which will not adversely affect wages and working conditions of 
similarly employed registered nurses; payment of wages to aliens at 
rates paid to other registered nurses similarly employed by the 
facility; taking timely and significant steps designed to recruit and 
retain U.S. nurses in order to reduce dependence on nonimmigrant 
nurses; absence of a strike/lockout or lay off of nurses; notice to 
workers of its intent to petition for H-1C nurses; percentages of H-1C 
nurses to be employed at the facility; and placement of H-1C nurses 
within the facility.
  This is a common sense employment-based immigration program that 
fills a desperate need in some of our nation's neediest hospitals. This 
program if very limited in who is admitted to work in this country, but 
fulfills a gap in our healthcare system.
  The Department of Labor has determined that the following hospitals 
are eligible for the program, some of which are located in Texas: 
Beaumont Regional Medical Center, Beaumont, TX; Beverly Hospital, 
Montebello, CA; Doctors Medical Center, Modesto, CA; Elizabeth General 
Medical Center, Elizabeth, NJ; Fairview Park Hospital, Dublin, GA; 
Lutheran Medical Center, St. Louis, MO; McAllen Medical Center, 
McAllen, TX; Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, MD; Mercy Regional 
Medical Center, Laredo, TX; Peninsula Hospital Center, Far Rockaway, 
NY; Southeastern Regional Medical Center, Lumberton, NC; Southwest 
General Hospital, San Antonio, TX; St. Bernard Hospital, Chicago, IL; 
and Valley Baptist Medical Center, Harlingen, TX.
  The Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999 was enacted as 
a four-year program (beginning on the effective date of implementing 
regulations) on November 12, 1999. The program expired in 2005 and was 
reauthorized in 2006 for an additional three years. The program expired 
in December of 2009 (but some H-1C nurses remain who received approval 
for three-year stays before this date). The Department of Labor reports 
that 499 nurses received visas under the program in fiscal year 2007 as 
did 110 in fiscal year 2008.
  I urge all Members to join me in supporting passage of this landmark 
legislation.

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