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FEDERAL RESERVE BANK CHAIRMAN CALLS FOR INCREASE IN ANNUAL H-1B VISA CAP NUMBERS
Federal Reserve Bank chairman Alan Greenspan officially supported the recently introduced bill to raise the annual H-1B cap during his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.  Greenspan has for many months been referring to the importance of immigration in the economy, but never made a direct statement that he supports increased immigration.  That has changed now, and the impact of his statement may be what is needed to secure the bill’s passage. 
Greenspan recognized that immigration is a politically charged issue, but told the committee that economists believe there are only benefits to the “internationalization” of the US economy.  He said “The benefits of bringing in people to do the work here, rather than doing the work elsewhere, to me, should be pretty self evident.”  Warning that the national labor shortage is the single greatest threat to the booming economy, Greenspan said that foreign skilled workers are a necessary safety valve in case the economy becomes overheated.  
There are those groups that maintain that the worker shortage has been greatly exaggerated.  Many of these groups have argued that those who cite Greenspan as supporting increased immigration are taking his comments out of context.  Clearly Greenspan’s recent comments make plain where he stands on this issue.  
He essentially warned that anti-globalization sentiments could be deadly to the current economic prosperity.  He also expressed concerns that such sentiments are becoming more widespread, citing the recent tumultuous meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle late last year.  
According to Greenspan, “As we are creating an even more complex, sophisticated, accelerating economy, the necessity to have the ability to bring in resources and people from abroad to keep it functioning in the most effective manner increasingly strikes me as relevant policy.”  Advocates of raised the H-1B cap hope that Greenspan’s comments will cause at least some legislators who are opposed to a cap increase to rethink their position.