GAO Study

Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 12:24 PM

************ H-1B NEWSLETTER *************

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The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) was asked by a couple of Democrats
to do a study for the U.S. House Science Committee to answer the question:
"Do companies show a preference for retaining H-1B workers, and if so, why?"

The GAO study, due out sometime next year, is expected to be used when the
congressional debate on whether the cap on the annual limit of H-1Bs should
be allowed to be reduced from it's current 195,000 per year to 65,000 per
year in 2004.

In past years the GAO was very objective when evaluating H-1B issues. That
objectivity has disappeared under the open borders Bush administration. If
this study is a sneak preview of next year's report then Congress will have
the justification they need to support higher limits.

The GAO is implying that the H-1B training fund is training poorly educated
American workers to compete with the so-called geniuses that are available
with the H-1B program. The implication is that companies will continue to
need H-1Bs until Americans have computer skills. They never ask why American
techies that built Silicon Valley and Microsoft have suddenly lost so many
skills.

Read the detailed report at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02881.pdf

The article below mentions that "38 percent of the scholarship recipients
are majoring in computer science, and 37 percent are majoring in
engineering." This statement is highly misleading as it implies that
Americans are receiving scholarships in order to obtain degrees. All that
the pie chart (GAO Report Figure 8 page 31) shows is that 38% take computer
related courses. If they took "Bar Code Scanner's for Dummies" they would be
counted in that graph.

Most of the fund money is used to teach 8 week technician level jobs (refer
to previous newsletters on the Training Fund Fiasco). Very few of these
programs actually send someone to a university degree program. The reporter,
Colleen O'Hara, must not understand that students don't become engineers
after taking a couple of technical courses. She also conveniently overlooked
"Appendix II: Survey Sent to Skill Grant Recipients". Here are some of the
listings that are unlikely to earn somebody an advanced engineering degree:

Computer Operator
Computer Technician
Office Administrator
Technical Support
Cabling
Medical Lab Technician
Nurse
Tool Setter

Journalistic objectivity should have motivated O'Hara to mention the
rebuttal in the document titled "Appendix IX: Comments from the Department
of Commerce" that said:

The Commerce Department finds serious methodological
and analytical weaknesses in the GAO review of the
high-tech training programs supported with funds
from the H-1B Petitioner Account

It's bad enough that the GAO is whitewashing the National Science
Foundation's "shortage of skilled workers" anecdotes. The NSF has worked
closely with Harris Miller of the ITAA to concoct reasons for expanding
H-1B. That's because the NSF gets 22% of the booty. To make matters worse we
have reporters that are doing nothing more than regurgitating the NSF's PR
sheets.

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/1021/web-gao-10-23-02.asp

GAO: Visa fees boost IT industry
BY Colleen O'Hara
Oct. 23, 2002

GAO report: High Skill Training: Grants from H-1B Visa Fees Meet Specific
Workforce Needs, but at Varying Skill Levels

The information technology industry is benefiting from federal grant
programs that use H-1B visa fees to train and prepare workers for highly
skilled jobs, according to a General Accounting Office report released Oct.
22.

H-1B visas allow U.S. companies, including federal contractors, to hire
skilled foreign workers on a temporary basis mainly in the IT and scientific
fields. Employers who want to hire these workers must pay the $1,000 visa
application fee.

Most of the application processing revenue is spent on training programs to
improve the skills of U.S. workers: The Labor Department receives 55 percent
of the funds to improve skills of workers in hard-to-fill occupations, and
the National Science Foundation receives 22 percent to distribute as
scholarship grants for low-income students.

Most of the skill-building programs funded in the first three rounds of
grants distributed in 2000 provided training for IT occupations, according
to GAO. Of the 43 grantees selected in the first three rounds of grants, 35
provided training in IT and 19 of them trained exclusively in IT, GAO said.

Students receiving scholarship grants, meanwhile, are training for positions
that are typically filled by H-1B visa holders. According to Immigration and
Naturalization Service data, 58 percent of H-1B visa workers were approved
to work in computer-related positions in fiscal 2001, GAO said. As a result,
38 percent of the scholarship recipients are majoring in computer science,
and 37 percent are majoring in engineering.

While GAO found that the programs do a good job of responding to workforce
shortages in local or national markets particularly in IT and health care,
there is still room for improvement.

GAO recommended, for instance, that Labor institute new reporting
requirements so that more detailed information is available about
participants and the level of training provided, and that better processes
be put in place to make sharing information related to the programs easier.
GAO recommended that NSF make it easier for schools that receive scholarship
grants to share successful strategies.

Labor and NSF generally agreed with the report. In its comments, Labor
suggested that its new reporting requirements should provide the necessary
additional details to help it evaluate the impact of its skill grant
program.

The GAO report was done at the request of Reps. Jim Barcia (D-Mich.) and
Lynn Rivers (D-Mich.), senior members of the House Science Committee.

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