Bill Gate$ lobbies Congress for unlimited H-1B visas

Here's one reason why Mary can't find even an entry-level job...
-sjl

----- Original Message ----- From: <News@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

To: <steve_landess@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 3:16 AM
Subject: two CEOs lobby for H-1B increase

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER  No. 1654 -- 3/09/2007 >>>>>

Bill Gates isn't the only one to go to Washington DC in order to lobby for more H-1B visas. Two corporate plutocrats went to Capitol Hill this week --

Rich Templeton, of Texas Instruments, and John Daane, of Altera. Their
lobbying campaign is being funded and organized by the Semiconductor
Industry Association.

Unfortunately there is scant attention being paid to this in the media so
it's difficult to find out more details. The SIA website doesn't mention

the lobbying campaign and other than the article below the press is silent.

The SIA website is at:
http://www.sia-online.org/home.cfm

I posted yesterday's Lou Dobbs show about the Bill Gates testimony on
google video. You can watch the videos at these links, and the transcript
follows the first article.

Part 1:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9183967286974233731

Part 2:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3581912965027051739


<<<>>>


This is an oldie but goodie that I just posted online. Governor George W.

Bush, while running in the 2000 presidential election, said that he wanted

the H-1B cap to be 200,000 per year. Do you think he would object if Bill
Gates asks for 300,000?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2020220588604273636

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/03/08/gates_end_limi
ts_on_h_1b_visas/

Gates: End limits on H-1B visas
He urges raising research spending
By Bloomberg News  |  March 8, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates said the United States
should end limits on visas for skilled foreign workers as part of plan to
boost US economic competitiveness.

"Even though it may not be realistic, I do not believe there should be any

limit" on H-1B visas, Gates told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions Committee yesterday in Washington.

He also urged the federal government to spend more on basic scientific
research and said the nation should double the number of science,
technology, and math graduates by 2015.

Gates, 51, is among technology industry executives in Washington this week

to press Congress on easing immigration for skilled workers, improving
public education, and increasing funding of university-level scientific
research.

Members of Congress, while endorsing the recommendations, have largely
failed to enact the proposals, citing obstacles including the federal
budget deficit and political opposition to loosening immigration laws.

"We know we must change course, but we have yet to take the necessary
steps," Gates told the Senate panel.

Current US law limits H-1B visas, used for high-skilled foreign workers, to

65,000 a year. Gates said he believes there should be no limit, because
skilled workers rejected by the US are creating job opportunities in
competing countries.

A legislative proposal to raise the limit to 300,000 would be "fantastic,"

said Gates, who is chairman of Microsoft, the world's largest software
maker.

The company has 3,000 available jobs that foreign workers could fill, he
said.

Rich Templeton, chief executive of Texas Instruments Inc., and John Daane,

his counterpart at Altera Corp. are making similar pleas while visiting
Washington this week on a lobbying trip organized by the Semiconductor
Industry Association.

Texas Instruments, the world's largest maker of mobile phone chips, also
backs a proposal that would grant a "green card," allowing permanent
residency in the United States, to foreign students who earn a graduate
science degree at a US university, Templeton, 48, said in an interview.

"There's a lot of support on both sides of the aisle" in Congress for that

plan, said George Scalise, 72, president of the San Jose-based
Semiconductor Industry Association, in the interview.

The H-1B law and the proposed extension into green cards would hurt US

workers because the measures are designed to help high-technology companies

hold down wages, the Center for Immigration Studies has said in reports.

The green-card provision would let companies "force foreign workers to put

in long evening and weekend hours, something it would be hard to get
American workers to do," the Washington-based research group said in May
2006 report.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/07/ldt.01.html

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT

Reinforcements on Top of 21,500 Troops Announced; Democrats Split Over
Iraq; Damage Control: Bush & Libby Conviction

Aired March 7, 2007 - 18:00   ET

DOBBS: Congress, or at least many in Congress, want to reign in the trade

policies of this president and to reverse the flow of middle class jobs out

of this country, but Microsoft founder and the richest man in the world,

Bill Gates, on Capitol Hill today told Congress we need more guest workers.

In effect, taking more jobs away from qualified Americans.

Lisa Sylvester reports on some in Congress who are calling for an end to
the president's blank-check, free-trade, high-cost policies.

Bill Tucker tonight reports on what many call the outright audacity of Bill

Gates' claim that in America there aren't enough qualified technology
workers.

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was Bill Gates day at the

Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He sat alone and

wasn't shy when asked about what he wants to see happen with the H1B visa
program, a temporary guest worker program for skilled workers.

B. GATES: Even though it may not be realistic, I don't think there should
be any limit.

TUCKER: The committee didn't deem it necessary to hear any opposing views,

so...

KIM BERRY, PRESIDENT, PROGRAMMERS GUILD: An unlimited number of H1Bs would

just push an unimaginable number of U.S. workers right out of the job
market. It would destroy the supply and demand that's necessary to
encourage next generation of Americans to enter this profession.

RON HIRA, ROCHESTER INST. OF TECHNOLOGY: He seems to be oblivious to sort
of basic economics that there is supply and demand, and the fact that
foreign workers, what the economists call, will have a lower reservation
wage.

TUCKER: That means they'll work for less. The median wage paid to an H1B

visa worker in the United States, according to the government, is $50,000.

Little wonder then that American students are showing less of an interest
in computer sciences.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) flood the market with cheap labor.

TUCKER: And most of those workers coming at that lower wage are not working

for American companies. Again, according to the government, seven of the
top 10 applicants are Indian companies. Infosys Technologies, Wipro and
Cognizant Technology Solutions took the top three spots, all providing
outsourcing solutions to American companies.

Even more interesting, there appears to be no apparent shortage of
engineers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCKER: A recent study by Duke's Pratt School of Engineering found that
eight out of 10 companies filled open positions within four months, and
that few of those companies had to offer a bonus to secure an employee.
That does not sound like a labor market wanting for workers.

DOBBS: Yes. It's -- to hear Bill Gates, who -- a marvelous entrepreneur,
highly successful, the richest man in the world, but there is something

wrong when a man as smart as Bill Gates advances an elitist agenda without

regard to the impact that he is having on working men and women in this
country, our middle class, and the future of the country.

He couldn't be more right when he talks about the need to invest in

education in this country, but this is one sorry way in which to live up to the standard that he is trying to set. And to confuse this issue as he did with H1B visas, unlimited, as if there's no role for government or for the right of a man and a woman in this country to make a living and to provide

for their families, I mean, the shortsightedness of the elites in this
country right now, this is going to be, I think -- go down as one of the
most shameful periods in our country's history, both in terms of the
absence of government leadership and business leadership.

Bill Tucker, thank you for setting the record straight.

That brings us to our poll question tonight.

Do you agree with Bill Gates that the United States should allow an

unlimited number of cheap foreign technology workers into the country? Yes

or no?

Cast your vote at loudobbs.com. We'd like to hear what you think. Send us
your thoughts, loudobbs.com. We'll have those results here later.


ZIMMERMAN: Well, first of all, this is George Bush's agenda, not the
Democratic Congress's agenda.

DOBBS: Don't tell Ted Kennedy that.

ZIMMERMAN: But he's one member.

DOBBS: Don't tell Senator Harry Reid that, Senate majority leader.

ZIMMERMAN: The reality is you still have a great many Democrats...

DOBBS: You are a wonderful Democrat.

ZIMMERMAN: I'm doing my best.

DOBBS: You can't do it this time.

ZIMMERMAN: There are many Democrats who agree with me that border security

has got to come first. And Bill Gates' proposal, which to me was just
absolutely stunningly...

DOBBS: Referring to unlimited H-1B visas.

ZIMMERMAN: After Bill Tucker's reports that show that we don't even know
how many visas are in the country, least of all who has them.

DOBBS: Exactly.

LOUIS: I mean, this is the problem with comprehensive immigration reform,
right? The corporate types like Bill Gates are looking out for their
shareholders and their bottom line. The unions, they say they don't care
about green cards. They care about union cards. You've got the wrong
stakeholders at the table.

DOBBS: Absolutely. And the stakeholders, as we've been reporting on this
broadcast, are middle class.

LOUIS: Nowhere to be found.

DOBBS: Just getting torn up in a town that just doesn't seem to know how to

represent them.

PEREZ: I'm on the other side of this argument, as you know.

DOBBS: Which one?

PEREZ: I'm for immigration, comprehensible reform. DOBBS: So am I for
immigration. I'm just not for illegal immigration.

PEREZ: You know, I am for a legalization plan. Not for amnesty, but for a
legalization plan, which is what they're proposing.

DOBBS: OK. We've got you on record. Maybe we'll take it up.

All right. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

The results of our poll tonight. Ninety-six percent of you do not agree
with Mr. Bill Gates, richest man in the world, chairman of Microsoft, and
the only witness before the Senate committee of Mr. -- Senator Kennedy,
that the United States should allow an unlimited number of cheap, foreign
tech workers into this country.

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