Senator Questions U.S. Government Agencies Hiring H-1B Workers
NIH and Fannie Mae among the top 200 users of H-1B visas
Thu, November 29, 2007
Computerworld — The National Institutes of Health employed more than 300 H-1B workers during the federal government's 2006 fiscal year, prompting Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to ask in a letter to NIH officials why a federal agency is hiring foreign workers with temporary visas.
Grassley, a member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and a leading critic of the H-1B visa program, Wednesday also fired off a letter with a similar set of questions to the Federal National Mortgage Association, also known as Fannie Mae. The Washington-based lender began as a government agency before becoming a private business that operates under a congressional charter.
During fiscal 2006, which ended in September of last year, the NIH "hired or otherwise employed" 322 people through the H-1B visa program, according to Grassley.
Fannie Mae had 141 H-1B workers during the same period, he wrote. Grassley said in a statement that the NIH and Fannie Mae were the only federal or government-chartered entities among the top 200 users of H-1B visas in fiscal 2006, with the NIH making the top 100.
"I'm asking questions today to find out how many taxpayer dollars are being used to recruit foreign workers and how invested our government-backed entities are in this visa program," Grassley said in a statement.
In the letters, he asked the NIH and Fannie Mae to provide an accounting of how many full- and part-time H-1B workers they have employed each year dating back to January 2002, along with the job titles of the H-1B holders.
The senator is also seeking detailed descriptions of the steps that the NIH and Fannie Mae take to hire American workers before filling jobs with H-1B holders, plus information on the number of layoffs made by the two organizations since 2002, including the job titles of affected employees.
Grassley acknowledged in the letters that the H-1B program "provides an avenue for U.S. employers to temporarily employ skilled foreign workers when the domestic workforce is unable to meet employer demands." But, he added, "this system is open to abuse and has raised concerns about whether American workers are being protected and whether H-1B employers are skirting the law in order to hire cheaper foreign labor."
The senator addressed the letters to Elias Zerhouni, the NIH's director, and Daniel Mudd, president and CEO of Fannie Mae. Grassley wrote that as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, he has a "duty to conduct oversight" of federal entities and their immigration practices.
