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An Anonymous Coward writes:

“The abuse of the system is real, and media reports are validating what we have argued against for years, including the fact that Americans are training their replacements.”

(Grassley-Durbin Bill press statement [senate.gov], Nov 11)

There has been much ado about the H1-B [wikipedia.org] and L1 visa [wikipedia.org] programs for foreign workers, with some in favor [paulgraham.com], and some against. What is pretty clear though, is that abuses do happen [latimes.com].

Now Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) have introduced legislation to try and curb some of these abuses. Among other things, their bill proposes to prohibit companies with more than 50 employees of hiring H1-B employees if the company already employs more than 50 percent of H1-B and L1 visa holders, and to establish a wage floor for L1 workers.

Working conditions of similarly employed American workers may not be adversely affected by the hiring of the H-1B worker, including H-1B workers who have been placed by another employer at the American worker’s worksite. In addition, it explicitly prohibits the replacement of American workers by H-1B or L-1 visa holders.

Full text of the bill here (pdf) [senate.gov], supporting statement by IEEE USA here [ieeeusa.org].

Given election times and all, what chance do you think this bill has to make it into legislation?

Original Submission