Moving at Internet speed, the House and the Senate approved legislation Tuesday to increase non-immigrant H-1B specialty occupation visas to 195,000 for FY 2000 through 2002. Introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Spencer Abraham (R-MI), the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act passed the Senate by a 96-1. The House, putting aside competing versions of the same bill, quickly followed with its approval on a voice vote.

The bill now goes to President Clinton, who has in the past promised to veto the measure but is now expected to sign the legislation. Clinton was seeking to add provisions to the bill that allow more illegal aliens and political refugees to remain in the United States. Last week, House Democrats failed to add similar provisions to the bill.

The current law limits H1-B visas to 107,500 this year and 65,000 next year. The technology industry claims 300,000 jobs are going unfulfilled for lack of qualified workers and has lobbied hard for an increase in the visas. American labor unions counter that the industry wants more immigrant workers to put downward pressure on Americans holding the same jobs.

If Clinton signs the bill, the new legislation raises the number of new six-year H-1B visas that the Immigration and Naturalization Service can issue annually to 195,000 for the next three years. Foreigners who received at least a master's degree from a U.S. college or university, or who work for a U.S. institution of higher education, would be exempted from the cap.

The new bill also extends a $500 fee for each visa, which are projected to generate $450 million over the three years to pay for 60,000 scholarships for U.S. students and training programs for 150,000 U.S. workers.

For delays of a year or more in Immigration and Naturalization Service processing, the bill allows extensions for workers to remain in the country while employers work on their behalf to obtain other types of visas.

The Department of Labor would be responsible for investigating the program. Fraudulently obtained visas would be returned to the pool available.

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