Robert Smith: “as a cosponsor of S. 1723, I rise today to support the American Competitiveness Act. Mr. President, the H-1B immigrant…”

“as a cosponsor of S. 1723, I rise today to support the American Competitiveness Act. Mr. President, the H-1B immigrant visa program is not the preferred avenue of hiring by our U.S. high tech companies. Hewlett-Packard, which is one of Oregon's largest high tech employers, currently employs more than 65,000 people in the United States and uses only 140 H-1B visas. Of these 140 H-1B visas, 17 of them have Ph.D. degrees and the remaining of them have at least an equivalency of a Masters degree. Our American companies would prefer to invest in Americans and retain the current domestic workforce. These companies collectively already spend, and will continue to spend, billions of dollars each year on training and educating American workers. Notwithstanding the current workforce, they are unable to fill key personnel slots, and it is critical in order to remain competitive, that they have access, through the H-1B visas, to these foreign-born professionals. According to the American Electronics Association, the U.S. electronics and information industry creates high-skilled, high value-added jobs. The rapid advances in computer technology have increased demand for trained specialists like computer engineers, computer systems analysis, database administrators, and computer support specialists. Even the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that demand for these occupations will more than double by 2006. Oregon's largest employer in the state is Intel.…”