Message to Senate on the Vital Role of the Higher Education and Research Facilities Exemption from the H-1B Cap

Faxed to Senate on March 31, 2006

H-1B Cap Exemptions for Higher Education and Research Facilities

Current law exempting higher education and nonprofit research facilities from the H-1B cap must be maintained as it recognizes the vital interests as well as the dire consequences if these organizations are unable to hire the researchers, scholars, and faculty they need. At a time when the United States is assiduously working to attract the best and brightest minds to our country to maintain our competitive advantage, it is exactly the wrong time to consider eliminating the H-1B cap exemptions for higher education and nonprofit research facilities.

Hiring patterns of higher education are different from those of private industry. Colleges and universities hiring calendar is tied to the academic year, with the process typically starting in the spring and early summer. Faculty members are hired after an extensive national and international search. Before being exempted from the H-1B cap, the cap was often exhausted before academia had even begun hiring. Last year, the cap for 2005-2006 had already been reached by October 1, 2005, the very first day of the cap year.

As for international researchers, they are hired throughout the year. Certain research projects would stop if the finest of U.S. research universities are only able to hire international researchers at certain times of year when new H-1B visa numbers become available. This is an unacceptable possibility.

It is understandable that Congress would like to know how many H-1B visas are issued annually. Counting of the number of H-1Bs that are not subject to the cap is quite easy actually, because the current H-1B data collection form revised in October of 2005 includes check boxes for the applicant to indicate if he or she is exempt from the cap and, if so, under what exemption. All that DHS has to do is tabulate those results.

Setting one cap on H-1Bs is an attractive option, but it is virtually impossible to calculate the need for specialty workers in the economy. In a strong, dynamic and vital economy as ours, it is hard to conceive of a cap that would be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of business and those of academia and research. In a competition between business and higher education and research, business wins. Business will always get to the H-1B pool before academia and research facilities, thus if there is a group to be harmed by a lack of these visas, it will be academia and research.

Without an exemption to the H-1B cap, the ability of higher education and research facilities to hire international faculty and researchers will grind to a halt. It would truly be devastating to return to the pre-exemption days where H-1Bs were not available to this community for a year or more. This would cause a great deal of harm not only to the institutions involved, but also to the U.S. economy, and to U.S. global competitiveness.