Healthcare Blog

The House and Senate appropriations committees are scheduled to meet this Thursday, November 1st to discuss the combination of the Defense, Military Construction-VA and the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bills into a single bill. As part of these discussions, the committees will consider including or excluding the Grassley-Sanders amendment (H.ADMT.3396) which adds an additional $3500 fee to the already excessive H-1B visa fees. This additional $3500 is to be used towards the creation of a special education fund to promote studies in the fields of math, science, and engineering.

HLG joins the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in strongly opposing this fee increase. The addition of such a fee would make it even more difficult for US businesses to hire skilled foreign workers. We, at HLG, are encouraging clients to voice their opposition against this fee hike by sending a letter to your Congressmen or calling the conferees directly. For further information, please see AILA’s Take Action website located: http://capwiz.com/aila2/home/ or contact your HLG attorney.

The Conference on Labor HHS is continuing. We suspect that the Conference will be finished this week, although no one knows for sure. The Committee is probably trying to structure the Labor HHS bill in such as way as to make it palatable for the President, although short of taking money off of the table, that is unlikley.

As for our amendment, it is going to be difficult, but we’ve been encouraged. Last week’s defeat of the Dream Act certainly hurt our chances. If you or yoru employer are familair with any of the Senators on the Conference please call them and encourage them to support the Schumer/Huchison amendment. You can use this to frame your discussions.

We crossed an enormous hurdle tonight when the Senate formally passed and added our bridge amendment to the Labor HHS appropriations bill!

The amendment calls for 61,000 visas for Schedule A occupations and their immediate family members. Employers will need to pay a Training Fee of $1,500 for each nurse immigrant. Certain healthcare facilities can have the fee waived. There is also a provision that calls for nurses to attest that they don’t owe their native country any financial obligations. This is fantastic news and the huge step in the process.

The Senate also passed an increase to the H1 Training fee, which was offered by Sen. Grassley. New training fee= $3,500!

For the nurse amendment, we still have to survive the conference, the likely veto, and re-conference. The House and Senate will formally begin their Conference on Wednesday and Thursday. Senators have been informally conferencing for about a month.

We need everyone to send thank yous to the Senators that they have been working on — and remind them that it is critical that the Senators fight to make sure that the Nurse Amendment survives Conference. The biggest risk is probably that some Congressmen will not like the $3500 Grassley H1 tax. If that happens Grassley may fight to take out all immigration amendments — including our Nurse amendment.

Once we survive Conference, we’ll worry about the President’s veto threat….

UPDATE: The training fee is remaining $1,500, but there is a new H-1 fee of $3,500. There are now these fees for H-1 cases:

- $320 regular filing fee
- $500 security fee
- $1500 H-1 training fee
- $3500 supplemental fee
- $1000 premium processing fee (if necessary)

Two different versions of the Bridge amendment – either of which would eliminate retrogression for Schedule A workers – were offered in the Senate over the weekend. Both amendments could be debated this week, perhaps as early as today. If formally passed and attached to the base bill, either amendment would have to be acted on by the House of Representatives, likely through the Conference Committee. After Conference, if the amendment survives, the entire bill would have to be approved by President Bush. Still, the mere offering of the amendments is a significant step in the legislative process, and significantly raises the chances of ending the retrogression of Schedule A workers.

The first, SA 3404 to HR 3043, seeks to amend the forthcoming Labor Health and Human Services appropriations bill, by recapturing 61,000 unused visas for Schedule A workers and their derivative family members. SA 3404 is co-sponsored by long-time champions Sen. Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Hutchison (R-TX).

The second, SA 3442, is also offered as an amendment to HR 3403. SA 3442 is a much more comprehensive amendment that seeks to recapture visas for not just Schedule A workers and their derivative family members, but also for conventional EB workers.

The purpose of offering two amendments is to hedge the bets of the champions. We’ll know shortly if their strategy works. Debate on the two amendments could start as soon as today, so stay tuned to the blog and CSPAN2.

The purpose of this Blog is to update readers about news and information as it pertains to the immigration of Healthcare workers into the US. But the news of the bombing of the Glorietta Mall in Makati City this afternoon transcends the specific purpose of the blog. We’re all devastated to hear the initial reports that there have been several deaths and many injuries.

Many members of HLG have spent time in Makati over the years and have shopped at the Glorietta Mall. Friends of ours have said that the bomb went off near “Jerry’s Restaurant,” which was a favorite of HLG’s.

HLG’s thoughts and prayers will be our friends in Makati.

The next few weeks are critical for the Bridge legislation. The conventional wisdom is that no immigration bills will be approved in 2008, which compounds the urgency. There are still many budget bills that are set to be acted on in the next few weeks. The Bridge is still on the short-list of smaller immigration amendments under consideration.

At least one immigration amendment has crossed a major hurdle. By unanimous consent on Wednesday the Senate passed Sen. Mikulski’s amendment to address the H-2B cap. The amendment is part of the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill.

The Mikulski amendment still has several steps before it becomes law: base appropriations bill passage, House approval, Conference committee survival, and no Presidential veto. Still, it is a significant breakthrough and shows what never-ending advocacy can do even on controversial immigration legislation. The H-2B has been a pet issue of Sen. Mikulski for some time. She and her staff deserve a lot of credit.

For the Bridge amendment we have our eye on several base appropriations bill, including the likely end-game omnibus appropriations bill. Stay tuned. It could be a wild ride over the short run.

HLG has just concluded its West Coast Symposium on International Recruitment of Healthcare Workers which was held in San Francisco. Speakers included Bruce Sarchet of Littler who spoke to the issue of employment contracts, and Steven Braff of the Braff Group who spoke to relevant financial metrics for staffing companies. HLG’s Mike Hammond, Sherry Neal, Chris Musillo, Cindy Unkenholt, and Judy Pendergast also presented at the Symposium.

The Coalition to Improve Healthcare Staffing’s website, www.ctihs.org, has added more state talking points. If you have any state data that we may use for future states, please post it here. Everyone is encouraged to contact their state Representatives and Senators and encourage them to push for the Bridge solution. As we’ve mentioned before the next 6 weeks or so will be critical.

The always interesting and influential National Foundation for American Policy has released a new study, “Foreign-Educated Nurses: A Small But Important Part of the U.S. Health Workforce.” The study details the vital role that foreign trained nurses have on American healthcare.

Among other findings, the NFAP’s concludes:

- Fears that foreign nurses would overwhelm the U.S. labor market and dissuade hospitals from active recruitment of U.S. nurses are unfounded; and

- The importation of foreign nurses does not harm the salaries of U.S. nurses.

Anyone interested this issue is encouraged to read the full study. The plain conclusion is obvious. Let’s hope that Congress reacts accordingly.