Lott Wants To Limit Debate, Amendments On H-1B Visa Bill

Senate Majority Leader Lott expressed doubt Wednesday about moving H-1B legislation this year if Democrats fail to agree to an offer he plans to make this week that would bring the measure to the Senate floor under more limited circumstances than an earlier proposal.

"They have got to agree to a limited process or we can't do it," Lott told reporters. According to National Journal's Technology Daily, Lott said he would make a proposal to Democrats to bring up the bill under a unanimous consent agreement that would allow senators to offer few or no amendments.

The proposal may be more limited in scope than an offer Senate Republicans made a few weeks ago that would allow each party to offer up to five amendments each to the bill. Democrats have said that is unacceptable.

The bill, passed by the Senate Judiciary panel in March, would increase the cap on H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers to 195,000 through 2002. The cap for 2000 is 115,000.

A spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Daschle could not be reached for comment. But while insisting that they support the H-1B legislation, Democrats have said they do not favor limits on what amendments they can offer.

When asked why he was insisting on limiting the amendments, Lott said the Senate was too busy with must-pass measures such as the annual appropriations bills to spend much time on the H-1B bill. "We need to agree to do it quick and clean," he said.

Industry leaders appear to be growing frustrated by the slow progress on the issue and are beginning to exert pressure on legislators. A group of high tech industry associations sent Lott a letter Tuesday urging him to move the bill to the Senate floor this month.

"Failure to pass the bill will result in lost sales, delayed projects and other threats to the global preeminence of the U.S. IT industry," according to the letter signed by the executives from such groups as the Information Technology Association of America, the American Electronics Association, the Information Technology Industry Council and TechNet--the latter of which is the lobbying arm of the high tech industry based in California's Silicon Valley.

Meanwhile, more than 400 companies and organizations sent a letter to every House member Wednesday expressing support for H-1B legislation sponsored by Rules Committee Chairman Dreier over the bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee under the leadership of Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas. Dreier's bill enjoys wide bipartisan support.

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