India’s government and companies are openly pushing for the U.S. Senate passage of a bipartisan “country caps” bill that would reward 100,000 Indian graduates per year with green cards if they take technology jobs in America.
“I must compliment the U.S. House of Representatives for adopting the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants bill which removes country caps on the H1B visas,” Indian ambassador Harsh Shringla told a D.C. meeting of lobbyists and advocates on Tuesday.
He continued: “I think this is an important initiative. We have worked with congressmen across the board, and we’re happy this is a bipartisan initiative in Congress, and we’re hopeful the Senate would follow course and also adopt the bill.”
The meeting at the Wilson Center in D.C. was arranged by NASSCOM, an Indian trade association, which includes many companies that use the H-1B visa program to place Indian software programmers in U.S. jobs. NASSCOM’s chairman, Keshav Murugesh, told the group at the Wilson Center:
The whole idea of these [executive] fly-ins, and NASSCOM coming in, and interacting with people on this side of the pond, is to make sure that we are continuously enabling the availability of skilled talent, and also working with the powers that be, and the government, to ensure that bad policy does not impact the great progress that we have made.
At least four lobbyists were hired by NASSCOM members to push the House’s version of the green card outsourcing bill, which is also supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Ambassador Shringla endorsed NASSCOM’s lobbying for the green cards, saying:
So let me once again congratulate NASSCOM and its members for their efforts to engage, not only U.S. industry, but also U.S. society, of the advantages of this very important cooperation. Your efforts will aso be given greater value by the cooperation you have with the Wilson Center — it will provide you with the intellectual heft and backing of a major U.S. think tank.
Shringla also thanked two former GOP politicians — former Sen. Spencer Abraham and former Michigan Gov. John Engler — for “supporting the effort.”
by Neil Munro