Kilmer, Collins Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Stop the Outsourcing of American Jobs
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Representatives Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Doug Collins (R-GA) introduced a bill to prevent employers from sending jobs overseas by abusing a temporary visa program. The legislation would stop employers that are awarded temporary visas through the H-1B program from using them to train workers in the United States then move those jobs to another country.
H-1B visas allow American businesses to hire foreign professionals if skilled American workers are unavailable to fill job openings. The employees must have expertise in fields like science and technology and generally have college degrees. But recently, unscrupulous employers have utilized the program to bring workers to train them in administrative positions, and then send those jobs overseas.
“American policies should be about helping to keep jobs here in America,” said Kilmer. “They shouldn’t be about sending jobs done by hard working Americans overseas. That’s why I’ve joined Representative Collins in introducing bipartisan legislation that would keep H-1B visas from ever being used to send any job to another country.”
“Protecting American jobs is crucial as our economy recovers and unemployment remains high,” said Collins. “Companies have the opportunity to bring workers from overseas on an H-1B visa in the event that qualified Americans aren’t available, but we can’t allow the law to be exploited to displace American workers and send their jobs abroad. The Keeping American Jobs Act protects American workers by preventing bad actors from abusing the system to offshore jobs. With an economy that is far from recovered, it is simply commonsense that we take steps to keep jobs here at home.”
Last year news outlets reported that American workers were forced to train H1B visa holders to do their job so that the jobs could be permanently outsourced to foreign workers.
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