Rebirth of the SKIL Bill

I thought it was a mistake when I found a post last week stating that the SKIL Bill was coming back, but today I received confirmation. The SKIL Bill (Securing Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Act of 2007) is back after a 10-month gestation period. H.R. 1930, (first introduced on April 18, 2007, but pushed back into subcommittee on June 4, 2007) has been brought back into the news courtesy of the 20-member House Republican Study Committee, which sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Letter Steny Hoyer requesting that the legislation be brought to the House floor. (If the link to the letter isn't working, you can access it by clicking on the "Scribd" icon at Michael Arrington's blog post.)

The second paragraph of the letter alludes to the fact that increases in the H-1B cap for 2007 were voted down since they were clumsily included in last year's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act that, as you may remember, dealt primarily with illegal immigration. The letter goes on to state that:

Every year, American businesses tell us how they are unable to retain the qualified people that they want to retain because of the artificially low H-1B visa caps and related regulations that do not reflect market realities. This situation is ironic, since most of the unemployable people were educated in the United States. [Note from Carrie - Hmmh, are they talking about Americans or foreign students?] As a country, we are effectively handling these highly-educated, extremely desirable individuals a diploma and a plane ticket. The message we are sending is "You can learn here, but you have to work in another country."

Key provisions of the bill

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt from the annual H-1B(specialty occupation) visa cap an alien who has: (1) earned a master's or higher degree from an accredited U.S. university; or (2) been awarded a medical specialty certification based on post-doctoral training and experience in the United States.

Increases the annual H-1B cap, with a 20% increase for the following year if the previous year's quota is reached.

Exempts from worldwide immigration caps an alien who: (1) has earned a master's or higher degree from an accredited U.S. university; (2) has been awarded medical specialty certification based on postdoctoral training and experience in the United States; (3) will work in shortage occupations; (4) has earned a master's degree or higher in science, technology, engineering, or math and has been working in a related field in the United States during the three-year period preceding his or her immigrant visa application; (5) has extraordinary ability or received a national interest waiver; or (6) is the spouse or minor child of an employment-based immigrant.

I see an awful lot of exemptions from different caps. You can read other provisions by clicking on the above-referenced links. The entire Bill is located here.

I couldn't decipher the names of a lot of the signatories, but I was disappointed to see Michigan Representative Pete Hoekstra's name included. Have fun seeing if your state representative's name appears.

I guess I can now understand a little bit more about why a lot of foreign workers are so desperate to come into the U.S. Check out Androcass' blog post "I Know How We Can Help."

(Cross-posted at Carrie's Nation.)