Tech Industry Urges Congress to Pass Immigration, Other Reforms Before Adjournment

[OhioChick]

The Information Technology Association of America says lawmakers in the 109th Congress need to act on a number of issues the group says are critical to the U.S.'s global competitiveness.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek

Nov 20, 2006 04:00 PM

A lobby group backed by IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and other tech industry giants is urging Congress to pass a new research and development tax credit and increase the supply of H1-B immigrant visas before the current session adjourns.

The Information Technology Association of America says lawmakers in the 109th Congress also need to act on a number of other issues the group says are critical to the U.S.'s global competitiveness. "Our leaders need to foster an environment that encourages new ideas and new technologies," said ITAA president Phil Bond, in a statement released Monday.

Patent laws and international trade are also on the group's reform agenda.

In its statement, the ITAA notes that the federal research and development tax credit expired almost a year ago and has not been renewed. "Until it's extended, companies cannot accurately plan to finance new or continued research and development initiatives within America's borders," according to the ITAA.
http://www.informationweek.com/outsourcing/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=194700008

~snip~ The ITAA has drawn criticism in the past from groups representing programmers and other tech industry workers who claim the organization puts the needs of its big corporate members ahead of the rights of American workers and small businesses, who in many cases are opposed to increased immigration and changes to the patent system.

[acmejack]

1. Richly deserved criticism!

Someone needs to poll the number of ex IT workers on this site. But people like Tata (what a name, is it a joke, the British goodbye?) have put tens of thousand once well paid Americans out of work & then insist that they haven't hurt American workers. This issue infuriates me, it shouldn't even be a debate!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. my roommate was an IT Tech...

he's now painting houses for $15 an hour, because it pays more. and he's NOT happy about it.

[Anakin Skywalker]

5. His Name is Meant as a Mockery to American Workers. Tata as in "Kiss Your Jobs Good-Bye!"

The tech industry is infested heartless scumbags. Being around all those machines for so long has turned them that way.

[ChromeFoundry]

6. I second that...

It infuriates me to no end. I have been in the IT arena pushing nearly 20 years, and I have seen way too many skilled individuals get the axe due to off-shored projects that fail, only to have the projects in sourced with H1Bs. The mediocre skills of these foreign nationals leaves the end result, buggy, prone to security vulnerabilities and lacking scalability. The end result is that they hire a few talented people back to clean up the mess. In the end, the project costs are beyond what the cost would be if the project had remained on-shore from the start... Plus, the project time-lines are often doubled due to project team hand-off and rework.

Then you got people like Microsoft's Balmer, making bold statements that there is not enough talent in the US. This is a flat out lie to drum up support for opening up the flood gates to an influx of cheap H1B laborers. They also want to make it so H1B workers are exempt from paying into social security (including the sponsoring company). It's a win-win situation for the corporate world.

On Edit: typo

[Cobalt-60]

2. This whole program is a fraud

There are many IT professional, myself included, that were basically mass fired the first year of the chimp's reign.
These foreign scabs work of half or a third of the wages we earned, so they can't get enough of them.
As I simply don't provided my highly skilled services for the 8-9 an hour the scabs make it is unlikely I'll ever work again.

[Demeter]

3. I'll BET They Are!

American born and educated engineers have been railing, in vain, against the H1-B visas since I graduated in 1976, if not before, when the war and the space program both shut down, and American graduates were taking jobs with insurance companies instead of doing engineering. After 30 years, it's doubtful if any American born engineers get hired, any more.

Engineers are blue collar (in Management's eyes) without unions, and with an attitude against organizing as being somehow "beneath" them.

[quickesst]

7. shouldn't people....

just shut up and quit ragging on immigrants because they are trying to make a better life for their family, even at the cost of their own job? Aren't you worried about being called a racist? Oh wait, I hang drywall for a living. My bad.
quickesst

[ChromeFoundry]

8. It is not racist to disagree...

with the way a companies can manipulate the system by reducing their costs by importing cheap labor.

If you comment was sarcastic, please state it!

Being in the construction business I would think that you would understand this concept very well.

When your employing construction company goes to congress and states that no one in the US has drywalling talent, and we need to bring in more Mexican workers to fill all the drywalling needs of this country... Congress approves this; you and your co-workers are handed pink slips; someone takes your job at 1/3 the pay... and everyone tells you it is great for the global economy. The construction company charges the same costs for the project, and makes more of a profit... You can't even get an interview at another construction company because they know you have experience and will ask more than the $7/hr paid out to their newly hired workforce.