Politics: Lawmakers Jump Into The IT-Jobs DebatePolitics: Lawmakers Jump Into The IT-Jobs Debate

A disgruntled technology staff might not be enough to keep a company from sending IT work offshore, but changes in U.S. laws could alter those plans.

One change, proposed by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., might force companies to think differently about training overseas workers. DeLauro's bill calls for tighter restrictions on L-1 visas, which are often used by companies to bring in overseas workers on a temporary basis. In some cases, companies have U.S. employees or contractors train their replacements, who come here on L-1 visas.

DeLauro's bill calls for a cap of 35,000 on L-1s, which currently have no cap. It also adds a prevailing-wage requirement and prohibits L-1 use by companies that have laid off U.S. employees within the preceding six months and for six months after the application is filed. "We want to stop the abuse of the L-1 visa program as a way to replace American jobs with foreign workers," DeLauro says.

U.S. policy makers are paying closer attention to offshore-outsourcing issues. "We're very much interested in knowing what companies are doing and why," says Bruce Mehlman, assistant secretary for technology policy at the U.S. Department of Commerce. However, companies' unwillingness to talk publicly about their offshore-outsourcing plans has stymied those efforts to some degree, Mehlman says.

The General Accounting Office hopes to shed some light with a report, due Sept. 10, on the impact of H-1B visas on the U.S. workforce, which also will include investigation into offshore outsourcing. When it comes to moving jobs overseas, policy makers need to decide whether this is a temporary response to the economy or a new global-sourcing reality. "Through the end of the 20th century, our economy has continually displayed the flexibility and innovativeness to keep generating new, high-quality jobs," Mehlman says. "The real question is, have things so fundamentally changed that our system can no longer respond the way it has historically?"

Some members of Congress want stronger protection. A bill by Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., would allow fewer than 5,000 H-1B visas to be issued each year. It's estimated that about 90,000 such visas will be issued this year. Still, the H-1B issue may prove less significant as companies get more comfortable just sending jobs overseas, rather than bringing technologists here to work for lower wages. Reps. Phil Crane, R-Ill., and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., have introduced a bill, called the Job Protection Act of 2003, that would provide tax benefits to companies that keep production and manufacturing on U.S. soil.

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