In an order to put a ban on hiring foreign workers, two more bills have been introduced by the United States Congress which might have a negative impact on the Indian technology market. The move comes after the concern on granting H-1B visa is not ending. Every year, 85,000 temporary work visas are provided and U.S. technology companies avail them in order to fill the technical roles required by the country. The H-1B visa program enables companies in US to hire high-skilled foreign workers including Indians.
On January 30, US Senator Sherrod Brown, two others introduced the ‘End Outsourcing Act’ seeking the companies that outsource jobs should not be subsidised by the US tax payers and also be disallowed to business with the US government.
Senator Sherrod Brown had said: “We need programmes dedicated to putting American workers first. When skilled foreign workers are needed to meet the demands of our labour market, we must also ensure that visa applicants who honed their skills at American colleges and universities are a priority over the importation of more foreign workers”.
“We should encourage businesses to invest here and make sure tax-payer funded contracts are awarded to companies that employ American workers”, Brown added.
However, while reacting on the issue ministry of external affairs said that so far no order has been given on H1-B visa, whereas MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “No executive order has been signed so far, three private bills have been introduced in the past also and such bills have to go through the full congressional process”.
