Organization supports actions of Senators Barbara Boxer and Judd Gregg
WASHINGTON, June 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the Software &
Information Industry Association (SIIA) praised Senators Barbara Boxer
(D-CA) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) for introducing legislation exempting highly
educated, foreign-born students earning an advanced degree in science,
technology, engineering or mathematics from a U.S. university from the
annual employment-based (EB) green card limit.
"The bill introduced by Senators Boxer and Gregg will help stop the
exporting of America's intellectual seed corn," said SIIA President Ken
Wasch. "These are some of the best and brightest young minds in the world,
and they are being educated here in America. They want to work here and
have a critical role to play in ensuring the continued growth and strength
of American businesses."
"In the global economy, we simply can't afford to continue educating
students in the U.S. and then sending them home to become our competitors,"
Wasch noted.
U.S. employers, particularly highly-innovative software and digital
content companies, rely on EB green cards to keep much-needed and
sought-after highly educated professionals working and innovating in
America. Backlogs in the EB green card system are well documented, with
some foreign-born highly educated professionals waiting more than 10 years
to receive a permanent resident visa.
"There will be more than two million job openings in the software and
information occupations between 2006 and 2016, according to a report SIIA
issued this year," Wasch continued. "It is expected that there will be
almost 450,000 openings for computer software engineers alone. Exporting
highly educated students in the face of such demand is devastating for high
tech innovation in the U.S. and undercuts America's economic standing in
the world. We applaud Senators Boxer and Gregg for their legislation aimed
addressing this situation and boosting American competitiveness."
This legislation is a companion to a bipartisan bill (H.R. 6039) that
was introduced last month in the House of Representatives by
Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Chris Cannon (R-UT).
For more information regarding SIIA's report on the economic impact of
the software and information industries as referenced above, please visit:
http://www.siia.net/govt.
About SIIA
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal
trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA
provides global services in government relations, business development,
corporate education and intellectual property protection for more than 550
leading software and information companies. For further information, visit
http://www.siia.net.
SOURCE Software & Information Industry Association
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.siia.net
CONTACT:
Eileen Bramlet, SIIA Communications Division,
+1-703-927-2022, ebramlet@siia.net; or David LeDuc, SIIA Public
Policy Division, dleduc@siia.net; PR Agency Contact: Kate
Brownlee, Rational PR, kathrynbrownlee@rationalpr.com
|
