Senate bill's H-1B provisions aren't pleasing

"As the bill stands now, I think it's pretty much a disaster for high-tech employers," said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, during a conference call this week. The call was held to announce the release of a report arguing, among other things, that H-1B workers are helping the economy and aren't hurting U.S. programmers who enjoy low unemployment and high wages.

But opponents of the H-1B program are dismayed over the proposed cap increase. John Miano, founder of the Summit, N.J.-based Programmers Guild, claims that H-1B workers are being used as a source of low-cost labor.

Miano said studies done by his group have shown that the prevailing wage claims of companies with H-1B workers were about $16,000 less than actual prevailing wages.

Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, thinks the H-1B program is discouraging students from entering high-tech fields and weakening the ability of the U.S. to innovate and even keep the military properly equipped. "I think the stakes are really pretty high here," Hira said.

But many changes to the Senate bill are likely; in fact, the measure has already seen some. Last week, when initial drafts of the Senate bill surfaced, high-tech groups said that the 20,000-visa exemption for advanced degree holders had been removed from the legislation. But a later draft changed that, and the Compete America trade group, which represents high-tech organizations and other entities that support the H-1B program, says the exemption remains in the bill.

Even if the bipartisan agreement shepherded by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) does get out of the Senate, it also must win approval in the House of Representatives, where it would face additional proposed changes.

For instance, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), who in 2005 introduced a bill called the Defend the American Dream Act that sought to improve protections for U.S. workers threatened by offshoring, plans to introduce new legislation this year. "We're close, and we're working out the details," said Caley Gray, a spokesman for Pascrell.