The bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee has jointly reintroduced a bill that would strengthen regulations related to H-1B and L-1 work visas for professional workers.
According to Reuters, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, introduced the bill on the 29th with Senator Dick Durbin, the committee’s ranking Democrat. The bill includes provisions to strengthen wage regulations and employment requirements for those eligible for the visas, and to require the disclosure of job openings for those eligible. It also includes provisions to raise the threshold for issuing visas.
Reuters reported that the two senators had previously introduced a bill with similar intent in 2007.Both H-1B and L-1 visas are used to allow foreign professionals to work in the United States. The H-1B visa, which has recently garnered attention due to President Donald Trump’s surge in issuance fees, is for specialized occupations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).Major US IT companies have primarily used it to hire professionals from India and China.L-1 visas are also known as “traveler visas” because they allow multinational corporations operating in multiple countries to bring employees they have hired overseas back to the US.
Some in the US have criticized these visas for stealing high-paying jobs from Americans.
Senator Grassley, who introduced the bill, stated, “Congress created the H-1B and L-1 visas as a limited means for companies to secure top talent when they couldn’t find them in the US. However, for years, many companies have used these visas to exclude American workers and bring in cheap foreign workers.”
Senators Grassley and Durbin recently requested the submission of data from 10 major companies, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, saying they are closely monitoring the companies’ H-1B usage.