BRAIN Act

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. is introducing a new pilot visa program that will keep plenty of foreign talent stateside, while proving much less controversial than the current H-1B visa system. Now that the H-1B program stands a chance of being expanded to allow as many as 200,000 skilled workers into the country per year, Lofgren, D-Calif., is launching an initiative of her own to prevent what she calls a "brain drain" from the US. Taking the brain drain term from the handy lexicon of Ayn Randisms, Lofgren and 14 other Congress members have introduced the BRAIN (Bringing Resources from Academia for the Industry of our Nation) Act. The bill, H.R. 2687, creates a new type of work pass, the five-year tech visa, to allow skilled high-tech workers to remain in the US after they complete undergraduate or graduate work. The T-visas would be available to international students who graduate US colleges and universities with degrees in science or engineering fields, and are hired by technology companies for at least $60,000. "For a long time I_ve always thought it was dysfunctional that we would bring over to the United States these hotshot students, have them get wonderful degrees in American universities, and then force them to go to some foreign country to compete with us," Lofgren said in an interview. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee_s Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims and co-chairman of the Democratic High-Tech Advisory Group, Lofgren noted that as the number of students studying science and engineering at US universities has declined 5 percent between 1990 and 1996, the IT industry conversely is clamoring for more of this talent. The H-1B visa program has addressed some of this need, though it has been much to the chagrin and annoyance of organized labor forces who claim that the program displaces qualified American workers in favor of foreign workers who are willing to ply their trades for less compensation. The effort to increase the amount of visas allowed under the H-1B program has been led mainly by Republicans, including Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., who helped pass legislation last year to raise the number of visas handed out to 115,000 per year through 2001.