Chuck Grassley: “I support the amendment that has just been described by the Senator from Vermont prohibiting banks which get TARP funds…”

“I support the amendment that has just been described by the Senator from Vermont prohibiting banks which get TARP funds from hiring H-1B guest workers for this year. I support the amendment because these companies should be hiring American workers during these tough economic times, particularly when there are so many qualified Americans on the streets looking for jobs. The American taxpayers who will be footing the bill on the stimulus money would agree with me. Banks that are getting taxpayer funds need to hire qualified Americans first before hiring foreign guest workers. Many banks participate in the H-1B visa program. Over 6 years, the banking industry has requested visas for over 21,000 foreign guest workers. The purpose of the H-1B visa program is to assist companies in their employment needs where there is not a sufficient American workforce to meet their technology and expertise requirements. I am very OK with an H-1B program if American companies cannot find enough qualified Americans to do certain jobs that need that particular expertise. Then we need to help those companies with those resources. However, H-1B and other worker visa programs were never intended to replace qualified American workers. We do not want to put Americans at a disadvantage. And now that many qualified, hard-working American bank workers are unemployed, banks that want to hire workers will not have a hard time finding what they need from the American workforce.”