ITI URGES SENATE LEADERS TO CREATE FIRM DEADLINE
FOR PASSAGE OF COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION
05.10.2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ITI URGES SENATE LEADERS TO CREATE FIRM DEADLINE
FOR PASSAGE OF COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION
Highly Skilled Worker Shortage Has “Reached a Crisis Level and Must be Addressed Now”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a letter
to Senate Majority Leader Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Information
Technology Industry Council (ITI) President Rhett Dawson today urged the Senate
leaders to create a firm deadline to pass a comprehensive immigration bill
that includes provisions to reform the H-1B and employment-based green card
system for highly skilled workers.
“The US has experienced a growing shortage of highly educated scientists
and engineers in recent years,” Dawson said in the letter. “This
shortage has reached a crisis level and must be addressed now. We think
a firm deadline will help create the will to find a bipartisan agreement
needed to pass this legislation. Meaningful and timely bi-partisan
negotiations are the only way Congress will be able to produce a bill this
year.
“Any high skilled provisions included in the bill must improve the ability
of American companies to compete for the world's leading scientists and engineers. Comprehensive
immigration reform should streamline the path to permanent residency for U.S.-educated
students studying math and science, provide critical relief with respect to
the number of available H-1B and employment-based visas, and reduce the backlog
within the employment-based green card system. This type of reform will
lead to a more highly skilled workforce and help maintain our competitive and
technological edge in an increasingly competitive global economy.”
ABOUT ITI
The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) is an elite group of the
nation's top high-tech companies and is widely recognized as the tech industry's
most effective lobbying organization in Washington. ITI helps member
companies achieve their policy objectives through building relationships
with Members of Congress, Administration officials, and foreign governments;
organizing industry-wide consensus on policy issues; and working to enact
tech-friendly government policies.
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ITI member companies include Accenture, Agilent Technologies, AMD, Apple, Applied Materials, Canon U.S.A., Cisco, ca, Corning, Dell, Eastman Kodak, eBay, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lenovo, Lexmark, Micron, Microsoft, Monster, National Semiconductor, NCR, Oracle, Panasonic, SAP, Sony Electronics, Sun Microsystems, Symbol Technologies, Tektronix, Texas Instruments, Time Warner, Unisys, Verisign and Vonage.
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