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H-1B UPDATE
The big news this week was the approval in the House Judiciary Committee of the Smith H-1B bill. Below is a chronology of developments this week on the H-1B issue in Congress: 
May 16, 2000
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to resume markup on H.R. 4227 tomorrow. In the meantime, active lobbying on the H-1B bill continues. 
We are posting two documents today written by our friend immigration lawyer Jan Pederson. Jan practices in Washington, DC. One document is a sample letter to Congressman on the H-1B issue. The other is a point sheet reviewing key issues in the legislation. Go to our Documents Collection to view. 
We also expect that the Senate will delay a floor vote on S. 2045, its version of the H-1B bill, until June. Arguments over amending the bill to include unrelated provisions continue. 
  
May 18, 2000 
As expected, the House marked up the Smith H-1B bill and passed it largely on party lines by a margin of 18 to 11. The bill would contain most of the same provisions we mentioned in our May 11th report. One apparent difference in the bill over last week's version is the removal of language that would make H-1B visas only available to firms that increase the hiring of American workers.  
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, the Democratic sponsor of an alternative H-1B bill that is generally favored by industry, told reporters after the vote that the bill was approved solely in deference to the powerful Lamar Smith, the Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee. She also noted that many technology companies have told her that they would rather have no bill than the Smith bill.  
Lofgren still hopes to get her bill introduced to the full House. The head of the House Rules Committee would have an important say in this and that position happens to be held by David Dreier, Lofgren's primary co-sponsor on her bill. Whether Dreier wants to cross Lamar Smith is another question, however. Lofgren also reportedly wants to add new proposals to extend amnesty provisions available to Nicaraguans and Cubans to other Central Americans. She also wants to add language to create a broad amnesty for people in the US longer than 14 years. These are provisions favored by President Clinton and were outlined in his proposal which we summarized last week. That proposal has also been endorsed by 1996 Republican Vice Presidential candidate Jack Kemp.  
Pundits are now predicting a June full vote in the House while the China trade debate continues.