William F. Smith: “Mr. Speaker, the bill we are considering on the floor today represents a good faith compromise between differing H-1B…”

“Mr. Speaker, the bill we are considering on the floor today represents a good faith compromise between differing H-1B measures, one passed by the Senate and one passed by the House Committee on the Judiciary. It is not perfect, but compromises seldom are. What the bill does do is take a middle role between varying viewpoints as to the H-1B visa program. The H-1B program is being abused by firms known as job shops or job contractors. These companies do not bring in a few H-1B aliens a year to plug skill gaps in their work forces. Instead, many, and sometimes all, of their personnel are in fact H-1B workers. Job contractors make no pretense of looking for American workers. They are in the business of contracting out their H-1Bs to other companies. The companies to which the H-1Bs are contracted benefit by paying wages to the H-1Bs often well below what comparable Americans would receive. In order to achieve this benefit, they have been known to lay off American workers and replace them with H-1B foreign workers from job contractors. In order to stem this abuse, H.R. 3736 requires job contractors, defined as companies where 15 percent or more of the workforce is composed of H-1Bs, to make good faith efforts to recruit American workers, to not lay off Americans and replace them with foreign workers, and to not contract H-1Bs to other companies who use them to replace other American workers.”