Kent Conrad: “my amendment is the same amendment that was added last week by unanimous consent to S. 1028, the health insurance reform…”

“my amendment is the same amendment that was added last week by unanimous consent to S. 1028, the health insurance reform bill. Although I am hopeful the House of Representatives will agree to retain the amendment during its conference with the Senate, that is not a certainty. The program this amendment extends is very important to my State and several others with large rural populations. But time is running out and this extension must be signed into law into the next few months. So I am offering the amendment today to S. 1664. This amendment would extend what has become known by some as the Conrad State 20 Program. In 1994, I added a provision to the visa extension bill that allows state health departments or their equivalents to participate in the process of obtaining J-1 visa waivers. This process allows a foreign medical graduate [FMG who has secured employment in the United States to waive the J-1 visa program's 2-year residency requirement. As a condition of the J-1 visa, FMGs must return to their home countries for at least 2 years after their visas expire before being eligible to return. However, if the home countries do not object, FMGs can follow a waiver process that allows them to remain and work here in a designated health professional shortage area or medically underserved area.”