Grassley: Trump’s H-1B Executive Order Protects American Workers; Prioritizes Visas for Most-Qualified Applicants
WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Chuck Grassley, an author of legislation to reform the H-1B and L-1 skilled
work visa programs, made the following statement regarding President Trump’s
executive order to protect American workers and prioritize H-1B visas for the
most-skilled applicants:
“The H-1B program was designed to fill gaps in America’s workforce with highly-skilled foreign workers, but as we’ve seen in recent years, the program has been abused and exploited at the expense of American workers and most-qualified foreign workers. We’ve seen companies use the program to fire American workers and replace them with lower-paid foreign counterparts. The visa lottery system makes this problem worse by rewarding visas randomly, instead of prioritizing foreign workers with greater experience, skill, and qualifications.
“I’ve introduced bipartisan legislation with Senator Durbin to address these problems, and I’ve expressed to President Trump the need to take action to restore the integrity in the H-1B Program. I’m grateful that President Trump has taken my suggestions to heart by taking steps today to protect American workers and preserve limited H-1B visas for truly qualified, high-skilled foreign workers,”
Grassley and Senator Dick Durbin introduced
legislation earlier this year to protect American workers form H-1B abuse
and prioritize visas based on the applicant’s merits rather than the general
lottery system.
Last Congress, the Senate Judiciary Committee held
a hearing exploring H-1B abuse and its impact on American workers, and recent
media accounts have illustrated how such schemes are costing American
workers their jobs.
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