If SKIL Bill fails to pass this session, 50,000 highly qualified U.S. workers dodged the bullet of being displaced by cheaper foreign labor. (According to DOL stats, 80% of H-1b LCAs are granted at the Level 1, 17th percentile of what average Americans earn in the same job classifications.)

It's disturbing that, while Microsoft does not recruit from ANY of the 22(?) California State University schools, they will accept workers from second rate, unknown schools and unverifiable credentials from India and China.

Again, the Programmers Guild advocates a $5000 per year fee on H-1bs, to be used to provide up to $20,000 per year tuition and expense reimbursement to U.S. college students of engineering and computer science.

Do you think the last 5 years have been tough?

Try to find a life in another country.

I just got laid off for Christmas.

The H-1Bs are still there.

Happy Holidays.

Here we are in 2006 with employment numbers in Tech jobs still below what they were in the pre-bubble days; wages are stagnant or falling; our own kids graduating from good Universities can't even get job interviews at companies like Microsoft, Intel, etc.; American Scientists, Computer Programmers and Engineers are being fired in large numbers and replaced with lower-paid H-1B Visa holders; and all the while, well-heeled corporate lobbyists still try to convince the public of a "labor shortage" and openly bribe "our" lawmakers into bringing in even MORE Foreign Workers? I guess there will always be a "shortage" of labor until wages drop to 5 cents an hour, right? It shows how our political system really works when Bill Gate's paid Whores swarm the Senate and House during the last few hours of a legislative session in order to get the lawmakers to cause even further economic harm to American Tech workers and their families. Anything for a buck, right Senator Cornyn ? Listen folks - the bought-and-paid-for Harlots in the House and Senate have done and will continue to do far more harm to the average American than Al Queda ever has or ever will.

Here is the Abramoff Scandal Scorecard.

These leaders associated directly or indirectly with lobbyist Jack Abramoff will
not be a part of the 110th Congress: Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), Rep. Bob Ney
(R-OH), Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-CA), Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), Rep.
John E. Sweeney (R-NY), Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH).

For details, use "Abramoff" as a search term in the http://www.CQPolitics.com website.
Unfortunately, some leaders apparently did not learn this lesson.

First, as a bit of background, here is how InfoWorld blog readers may confirm that
Microsoft lobbyist Jack Abramoff lobbied for expansion of the harmful H-1B visa
program in 1998.

In 1998, Microsoft lobbyist Jack Abramoff lobbied former U.S. Representative -
and Majority Whip Tom DeLay's office for expansion of this controversial visa
program as shown in disclosures posted at the U.S. Senate Office of Public
Records. Here is the process to see them...

Go to http://sopr.senate.gov/

Select the link to view lobbyist disclosure records. Use "Abramoff" as the
lobbyist name. Select "Jack Abramoff" as the lobbyist name. Then view line 22,
which is the 1998 mid-year report for Microsoft Corporation. Page one of this
report shows that Microsoft paid Abramoff $360,000 for six months (or
$60K/month.) Then, go to page six of 11. The reader will learn that DeLay's
office was lobbied by Abramoff regarding "H.R. 3736, The Workforce
Improvement and Protection Act of 1998, all provisions relating to the H-1B visa
program and S.1723 American Competitiveness Act (sic), all provisions relating
to the H-1B visa program." William Jarrell, Rep. DeLay's Deputy Chief of Staff
was lobbied.

Nonpartisan site http://www.PublicIntegrity.org provides documentation of the
$46,020,000 that Microsoft Corporation has spent on lobbying between 1998 and 2004
Add the $15,420,453 in campaign donations at http://www.OpenSecrets.org
since about 1998. In exchange for these funds, Microsoft
has been able to save billions annually. http://www.H1b.info shows over
4,327 H-1Bs directly employed by Microsoft between 2001 and 2003.
(Many more are hired via contractors such as Tata, Infosys, Satyam, etc.)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is attempting to push through a version of his S.2611
on the consent calendar (for noncontroversial legislation) in the last day of the
lame duck session of the 109th Congress. The House counterpart is HR.5744.
S.2611 would cause the largest (and open-ended) expansion of the H-1B visa
program in its 16 year history. This "under the radar" action is extremely
controversial!

If you think that Sen. Cornyn's action is improper, you may wish to contact your
Capitol Hill representatives. They may be phoned today via the Capitol Hill
switchboard at (202) 224 - 3121. Tomorrow may be too late.

Getting skilled people to the US is going to make US more competitive and stop the flow of work from US to india/china.

Also its important to retain educated and skilled people in US.

Its a question of retaining jobs and technical expertize in US versus letting jobs being created outside US. US should remain open and do the right thing.

The H1-B advocates are in full cockroach mode:
They are reduced to trying to add riders onto
bills during a lame duck session of a discredited
congress. It's pathetic.

Equally important, the H1-B program has already
done considerable damage to the US technology
work force. When you consider that Comp Sci
and EE enrollments are already below 50% of the
enrollments 6 years ago, you have to look hard
at the possibility of US citizen programmers
becoming extinct.

It's an ugly story of corruption, economic
warfare, and foreign money. It's a story which
deserves to be told.

I design ASICs for a living, have a MSEE.
I don't wory about a jobs. New grads have it bad.
There are few entry level jobs available.
part of it the H1 issue. Why hire a new grad when you can get experience from overseas for less money?

There are countless H1 abuses but the program still chugs along.
large tech companies write reqs. so that a new grad could never qualify. They hire an H1 for less money even though they are to pay the prevailing wage.

I say reduce the number of H1.

H-1B's is a short term economic law, with log term social, economic, technological implications.

For those who believe economic choices are the best or only choices, it makes since. Companies like Microsoft and the rest are doing what any company with share holders would do. Lower costs at any expense! Capitalism/Free market at it’s rawest form..

But the role of the Government, is to protect the people, protect the future generations, than protect the companies.

No law should be created to hurt the warfare of American People or the future, inthis case the future technology state of the union. As a result of the current H-1B system, Information Technology College Graduates are on the decline (FAST), and technology expertise is going overseas, and we are loosing our edge. We as a country will completely loose technology superiority, which is the basis of the world of tomorrow.

Creating more IT Talent/skills to fuel the market internally is the only option to keep the talent high, and wages under control. We may even export our Talent like India, China, and the Russians.

That should be the goal of laws for the country.

Sen. John Cornyn bill will help to solve illegal practices with H1B. The H1B holders will be eligable for permanent residence application after 3 years of work that will allow depressed wages to start growing again, since they will be able to move to a better job more quickly. However, it would be better if they can apply immediately.
There is also a bill needed to prevent companies from outsorcing to keep jobs in US.