Top Tech Executives Urge Senate to Pass Gang of Eight Bill

The Hill

By Jennifer Martinez

June 21, 2013

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/306769-top-top-executives-urge-senate-to-pass-gang-of-eight-bill-#ixzz2WqoaxHRZ

The tech industry is ramping up its call for the Senate to pass immigration reform.

More than 100 top tech executives and heads of tech trade organizations — including Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Cisco CEO John Chambers — urged senators to pass the Gang of Eight's immigration bill in a letter sent to the hill on Thursday.

The tech leaders said the measures in the bill will help companies fill thousands of empty technical jobs with skilled workers and also address the current skills gap in the United States by creating a so-called STEM fund that's dedicated to improving American education programs in science, technology, math and engineering. The money for the STEM fund would be culled from higher fees that companies would have to pay under the bill for visas for highly skilled workers.

"Senate approval of S. 744 is essential for our economy to continue to foster innovation and invigorate many U.S. business sectors through an educated and highly skilled workforce of domestic and foreign-born talent," the executives wrote.

The letter was also signed by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, among others.

The letter comes as the Senate is voting on amendments to the sweeping bill this week in hopes of meeting a July deadline for passage. The tech industry is on guard against amendments that would strip away favorable language on H-1B visas that was secured through a compromise struck by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) last month. The compromise made the process for granting H-1B visas more palatable to tech companies by softening some of the worker protections in the original version of the bill.

Tech companies have been lobbying fiercely on the Hill to rally support for the Senate bill. Several of the tech executives who signed the letter to the Senate had also backed a March letter urging President Obama and Congress to pass immigration reform.

The sign-on letter was organized by trade groups that represent tech companies in Washington, including TechNet, the Information Technology Industry Council and Consumer Electronics Association.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com