John McCain - proud co-sponsor of H-1B

H-1B      Hall of Shame

http://tinyurl.com/2muj3r

Get the Facts on H-1B
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/

Top 100 Companies that employ H-1Bs
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/TopByCompany.htm

John McCain Joins Council on Foreign Relations
http://tinyurl.com/39gjss

(Official CFR 2001-02 Membership Roster requires Acrobat PDF software to view
Mirrored direct HTML link here and two CFR/McCain Annual Report Speeches here )

and

The Trilateral Commission

JOHN McCAIN

Arizona

 
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE
AND TRANSPORTATION
COMMITTEE OF ARMED SERVICES

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIR

 September 28, 2000 

Dear [Name Deleted],   

Thank you for contacting me regarding the high-tech job market in America and the H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign workers. I appreciated hearing from you.

In 1998, Congress passed legislation to raise the cap on visas for skilled foreign workers in the face of an array of evidence demonstrating that Americans were not filling the specialized jobs covered by the H-1B visa category. At the time the Information Technology Association of America estimated that there were more than 346,000 unfilled positions for highly skilled workers in American companies. The Department of Labor estimated that the American economy would generate 1.3 million new jobs each year for a decade in the computer and information technology industries, but that American universities would be able to supply only a quarter of the graduates needed to fill those jobs. The Hudson Institute predicted that in a few years this worker shortage, if not addressed, would cause a five percent drop in the growth rate of our economy -- a $200 billion annual loss in national output.

The American Competitiveness Act of 1998, which I cosponsored, raised the annual cap on H-1B visas for skilled professionals from 65,000 in Fiscal Year 1998 to 115,000 in both FY 1999 and FY 2000, and to 107,500 in FY 2001. Nonetheless, even the higher number of H-1B admissions authorized by Congress, for FY 1999 was reached only eight months into that fiscal year, and the FY 2000 cap was reached in March 2000, or only six months into the current fiscal year.

Congress is currently considering legislation to further raise the annual cap on H-1B visas. I support S. 2045, the main bill before the Senate on this issue, which would add an additional 297,500 H-1B visas between FY2000 and FY 2002, as well as expand the availability of math, science, and technology scholarships for Americans. The 106' Congress is expected to take up this legislation before adjourning in late 2000.

Further raising the H-1B cap is a short-term solution to the skilled-worker shortage in the United States, but over the long term, I believe we need to address the underlying problem resulting in a shortage of skilled American workers. Consequently, on October 27, 1999, I introduced S. 1804, the 21st Century Technology Resources and Commercial Leadership Act, which addresses the need to improve Americans' skills in math, science, engineering, and technology in order to maintain our world leadership in high-tech fields. Several other bills before Congress would raise the H-1B visa cap, but focus less on the long-term goal of educating and training Americans to fill available high-tech jobs. S. 1804 would encourage innovation in improving elementary and secondary education in math, science, and engineering, as well as provide powerful incentives to retrain American workers who lack the skills to compete in the high-tech economy. In the interim, to provide for the requisite number of highly skilled professionals until we have educated and trained a sufficient number of Americans to fill these jobs, the bill would lift the cap on H-1B visas through 2006. All current information indicates that the supply of American professionals in the math, science, engineering, and technology fields will not meet the demand of American industries through at least that date.

Specifically, S. 1804 provides for grants to be awarded under the supervision of the Secretary of Commerce in consultation with the Office of Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation, on a competitive basis, for implementing programs that will improve the math, science, engineering, and technology skills of American students and professionals. The types of programs to be awarded grants are not specified so that Congress does not unintentionally foreclose new and more innovative ideas from surfacing. The grants would be funded from current H-1B visa application fees and could be awarded to companies, organizations, schools, school districts, teachers, and institutions of higher learning.

My legislation would use H-1B visa fees to encourage innovation in our schools, to teach American students the skills they will need to succeed in the 21st century economy, and in our companies, to train and retrain American workers in the high-tech skills American businesses rely upon. The legislation would support corporate partnerships with schools or school districts to improve math and science curricula; scholarships for students willing to study advanced engineering or technology fields, and for those who agree to teach math or science for a period of time after graduating college; and innovative worker training and retraining programs within American companies. It leaves open grant support for any proposal that promises to improve the American talent pool in high-tech fields.

I understand the concerns expressed by those who fear legislation to raise the H-1B visa cap would cause unemployment among American workers. In fact, current law penalizes any employer who lays off an American worker in order to replace him or her with an H-1B visa holder and pays that individual anything less than the average prevailing wage in that line of work -- a standard which often results in a higher salary than that made by American entry-level workers. Any company with a significant number of H-1B workers must also attest that it will not lay off an American employee after filing a petition for an H-1B professional. Moreover, the Department of Labor is empowered under the law to investigate and penalize willful abuse of the H1B visa program and has done so repeatedly since the program began in 1990. These safeguards protect American workers from wrongly losing their jobs to H-1B visa holders.

Thank you again for contacting me about legislation to increase the pool of American talent in high-technology fields Please feel free to do so regarding any matter.

 

  

 

 

Senator Tom Harkin and John McCain,

I want to thank Tom Harkin for blocking the H-1B bill. I am a 43 year old software engineer that has been trying to get a job for 3 months now in the Phoenix metropolitan area. I haven't received one job offer and lately can't even get interviews. You are absolutely correct that there is no shortage of programmers - there is only a shortage of companies that are willing to hire mid career professionals. Perhaps they will feel more pressure to hire American citizens if you hold tough and block this bill.

Unfortunately our Senator John McCain is not as well informed as you. He accepts the corporate propaganda that Microsoft and Intel need more foreign engineers to increase their bloated profits. I'm sure H-1B will make their bottom line fatter but it will be at the expense of people like me. All that McCain needs to do is to read our local newspaper and see how many people are losing their jobs at Motorola, Intel, Viasoft, and many others. Maybe he would change his mind.  

I have one question for John McCain: How does putting me on unemployment help the state of Arizona and why should I vote for somebody that wants to force me into one of Arizona's low paying service jobs?

 

   

JOHN McCAIN

Arizona

COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE
AND TRANSPORTATION
COMMITTEE OF ARMED SERVICES

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIR

June 12, 1998

Dear [Name Deleted]  

Thank you for contacting  me regarding S. 1723, the American Competitiveness Act. 

 I am proud to have been an original co-sponsor of this bill, which would raise the temporary visa cap for skilled foreign workers. The Senate approved S. 1723 on May 18, 1998. The House of Representatives is currently considering companion legislation. It is my hope that the House will join the Senate in voting to raise the cap on visas for highly skilled workers. 

The reality is that American workers are not filling the specialized jobs covered by the H-1B visa category. The Information Technology Association of America estimates that there are more than 346,000 unfilled positions for highly skilled workers in American companies today. A recent Department of Labor study estimates that the American economy will generate 1.3 million new jobs during each of the next 10 years in the computer and information-technology industries. The same study predicts that American universities will be able to supply only a quarter of the graduates needed to fill those jobs during that period. The Hudson Institute predicts that in a few years this worker shortage, if not addressed, will cause a five- percent drop in the growth rate of the gross domestic product. Which breaks down to a startling $200 billion loss in national output. 

Currently, the H-1B visa category allows as many as 65,000 foreign-born computer programmers, engineers, architects, doctors, college professors, and other skilled professionals to enter the United States every year on visas valid for up to six years. Regrettably, the 65,000 annual cap was reached in early may 1998, meaning that American high-tech companies, universities, and research labs will be unable to hire skilled workers under the H-1B program until the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1. 

This hiring gap, if not addressed, will hurt American businesses, workers, and consumers. Businesses will suffer from the costs of a labor shortage, which they are powerless to change in the short term. Workers will suffer when their companies lose the profits that would accrue from hiring the skilled foreign professionals that are unavailable. And consumers will pay higher prices for the goods and services, which are available while going without those which, are not. Everyone will lose as American companies shift production overseas to the sources of the specialized labor they cannot attract in the United States. 

I understand and fully share the legitimate concerns expressed by those who fear legislation to raise the H-1B visa cap will cause unemployment among American workers. In fact, the American Competitiveness Act would penalize any employer which lays off an American worker in order to replace him with an H-1B visa holder and pays that individual anything less than the average prevailing wage in that line of work -- a standard which often results in a higher salary than made by American entry- level workers. Moreover, the Department of Labor is empowered under the law to investigate and penalize willful abuse of the H-1B visa program and has done so repeatedly since the program began in 1990 -- a fact which counters the arguments of those who insist that there exist rampant fraud and abuse within the H-1B market. In short, this legislation protects American workers from wrongly losing their jobs to H-1B visa holders willing to work for less pay and fewer benefits. 

Over the long term, we must see to it that American workers possess the skills and know-how to fill the jobs created by American high-tech firms. For this reason, our legislation provides for 20,000 new college scholarships annually for low- income students in math, engineering, and computer science through the State Student Incentive Grant program. Our bill also sunsets the higher H-1B visa cap after five years so we can determine whether an increased supply of foreign professionals remains necessary to our economic well-being. 

In the short term, we must raise the cap on H-1B visas -- a cap which was set arbitrarily-in 1990, without any data about how many professionals would be necessary in the American labor market and without regard to how the cap, which did not exist before 1990, would affect the American economy. If Americans are not signing up for the specialty jobs available in the private sector, and our companies and research labs cannot hire the skilled professionals they need, we will all suffer the effects of reduced economic growth. By raising the H-1B visa cap now and taking steps to increase the number of skilled Americans in the future, we will help provide the regulatory framework within which the American economy can thrive and Americans can prosper. Thank you again for contacting me on this issue. Please feel free to do so in the future regarding this or other matters that concern you. 

    

    

 

There are two ways to destroy the jobs of United States Citizens. NAFTA is used to ship jobs to other countries and allows Canadian and Mexican citizens to work in the United States. H-1B is used to import foreign indentured workers here to take  jobs that American employers claim can't be filled in the "tight American labor market". 

Your professional career is being undermined by our own government and rich corporate lobbyists.

H-B1 Hall of Shame

Qualified citizens must be given the right of first refusal for jobs created in the United States.

American Engineering Association

H-1B Horror Stories

http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Horror.htm

Grassroots effort wages Net war against H-1B increases

By Terry Costlow
(06/12/00, 4:24 p.m. EDT)

CHICAGO — As the U.S. Senate debates legislation that would nearly double the number of H-1B temporary visas granted to foreign workers annually through fiscal 2003, grassroots opposition to the visa program is growing, in a campaign that is largely being conducted over the Internet. But given the big guns lined up to defend the bill, its opponents fear passage is all but guaranteed.

"We're in a fight we don't have a chance to win," said Richard Tax, vice president of the American Engineering Association. "We're going into this fight with slingshots and arrows. But I still can't understand why a U.S. congressman would vote for something that is so much against American workers."  Lobbying efforts supporting the bill revved into overdrive this past week as officials from various industry organizations signed a joint letter urging passage by the end of the month of S.2045, the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act. The proposed legislation would raise the ceiling on H-1B visas to 200,000 in fiscal years 2001 through 2003. This year, the limit is 115,000.

Signing their names were the presidents of the American Electronics Association; Computer and Communications Industry Association; Consumer Electronics Association; Electronic Components, Assemblies and Materials Association; Electronic Industries Association; Government Electronics and Information Technology Association; Information Technology Association of America; Information Technology Industry Council; Semiconductor Industry Association; Software and Information Industry Association; and TechNet.

Lined up against that army is a sparingly funded, loosely organized militia that is leveraging the Net to get the word out. Late last month, four people led by a mathematician established a Web site at zazona.com. The site, supported by the American Engineering Association and the Programmer Guild, is circulating a petition asking Congress to abolish the H-1B program and curtail immigration.

The group claims that the "shocking state of American job markets in science and engineering is already causing the rising generation of Americans to avoid the noble professions of science and technology altogether."

Organizer Damon Scott became interested in immigration when he was a math professor at Belmont Abbey College (Belmont, N.C.). He was laid off from that job and is currently pursuing graduate work. As signed paper petitions come in via mail, Scott is forwarding copies to members of Congress. The numbers were small at press time, seven days after the site was set up.

"This effort just kind of evolved," Scott said. "Lots of people are doing little things, and this is my contribution to saving American jobs."

Immigration opposed

NumbersUSA.com (Arlington, Va.), which works to decrease immigration overall, has also targeted H-1B. The group has begun forwarding names to Congress to prevent the passage of bills that would raise H-1B immigration quotas.

"We want to help people get their views to Congress," said Roy Beck, director of NumbersUSA.com. "We know American workers don't have much of a voice in Congress. The people who hold sway have large amounts of money."

http://www.edtn.com/story/biz/OEG20000609S0065-R

McCain's Finance Reform Speech

It's Your Country Take it Back....he says

John McCain says one thing and DOES ANOTHER!!

Campaign Finance Reform

Senator John McCain
United States Senate
October 14, 1999

Mr. President, let me repeat in response to the Senator from Utah, the argument I make both on my web site and here today is that I believe -I believe - that part of the problem, indeed, a "key ingredient" of wasteful spending and special interest tax breaks is the affect of soft money on the legislative process. Not that every bit of pork a member secures is caused by soft money, but that in the aggregate wasteful spending is caused by, among other things, soft money.

"Mr. President, let me offer my colleagues a definition of corruption from Webster's dictionary: 'corruption - the impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle.'

"Note, Mr. President, this definition does not say that corruption occurs only when laws are broken. I have already cited, as has the Senator from Wisconsin, the large amount of soft money given to both parties by various industries and the aggregate amount of tax breaks those industries received. I believe, even if some of my colleagues do not, that these amounts have impaired our integrity. I believe that as strongly as I believe anything. Unlimited amounts of money given to political campaigns have impaired our integrity as political parties and as a legislative institution.

"As the Senator from Wisconsin has noted, we are not accusing members of violating federal bribery statutes. No, Mr. President, we are here because there no longer is a law controlling the vast amounts of money that I believe are impairing our integrity. In the immortal words of the Vice President - 'there is no controlling legal authority.'

"I watched very closely as the 1996 Telecommunications Deregulation bill became every thing but deregulatory, and led to far less competition than it was intended to engender, and the consequent increase in cable rates, telephone rates, etc. I believe that soft money played some role in that. Again, not in a way that fits within a legal definition of bribery, but in the way that the majority -- the vast majority - of Americans believe -- as an impairment of our integrity. And I include myself in that indictment.

"That is the problem I am trying to address with this legislation, and no attack, no amount of head-in-the-sand pretense that soft money doesn't affect legislation will cause me to desist in my efforts. And I would close with one observation - if special interests did not believe that their millions of dollars in donations buy them special consideration in the legislative process, then, Mr. President, those special interests - who have a fiduciary responsibility to their stockholders -- wouldn't give us that money, would they?

"Those interests enjoy greater influence here than the working men and women who cannot afford to buy our attention but who are affected, sometimes adversely, by the laws we pass. For me, Mr. President, that seems to be a good working definition of an impairment of our integrity, which is, as I noted, Webster's definition of corruption.

http://www.itsyourcountry.com/speech10-14-99.htm

Congress adjourned for its August recess without passing legislation to increase the H-1B cap.   Acritcle blow-by-blow coverage of the legislative battle is not accessible now ( had been presented by an immigration lawyer ).  Lastly the legislators proposed a deal as shown below, in a bulletin of another immigration lawyer.

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9302/News98-8.htm

Senator McCain to call for increase in H-1B visas
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/1999/0820visas.html


H-1B Cap Bill: List of Sponsors
http://tinyurl.com/3btun7

Petition to Abolish the H-1B Visa Program
http://www.zazona.com/h1bpetition/P/petition.html


Petition to the Congress of the United States to Abolish H-1B Visa Program
http://zazona.com/H1BPetition/L/textLetter.pdf

Layoffffs & Downsizing
2001-2002

. . Joe Smith started the day early, having set
his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 am . . .
While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking . . .
he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG).
He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA),
designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE),
and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA).
After cooking breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA),

He sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO),
to see how much he could spend today.
After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN),
to the radio (MADE IN INDIA),
he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY),
and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB !!!
At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day,
Joe decided to relax for a while.
He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL),
poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE),
and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA),
and wondered why he can't find a good paying job

( in AMERICA) !!!

John McCain's Lobbying Scandal

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American Patriot Friends Network

"....a network of net worker's..

 

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