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Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »November 20, 2008 — Computerworld —
The person thought to be President-elect Barack Obama's leading choice to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, has been a strong advocate of increasing H-1B visas—a stance that could turn out to be a lightning-rod issue during her confirmation.
In testimony, speeches and a letter sent last fall to congressional leaders, Napolitano, a two-term governor, has left a clear trail of support for increasing the H-1B visa cap to address what she has argued is a shortage of skilled workers.
Napolitano's consideration by Obama for the DHS post was widely reported today, although it has not been confirmed publicly. The DHS oversees U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which manages the visa program.
Napolitano was one of 12 governors who sent a letter (download PDF) in September 2007 to congressional leaders in both parties urging an increase in the visa cap. "Until we are able to address this workforce shortage, we must recognize that foreign talent has a role to play in our ability to keep companies located in our state and country; and therefore, need to ensure the increase availability of temporary H-1B visas and permanent residency visas (green cards)," the governors wrote.
Those pushing the visa cap hike included California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
Napolitano "is as rabid a supporter of H-1B as you are likely to find," said Rob Sanchez of Chandler, Ariz., a software engineer who publishes the Job Destruction Newsletter, which is focused on technology-related labor issues.
As head of the DHS, Napolitano could not unilaterally raise the cap, which is now set at 85,000—a figure that includes 20,000 visas for advanced-degree graduates. Congress sets the H-1B cap, but the head of the DHS oversees how the program operates.
"Napolitano has publicly and repeatedly called for major H-1B expansion," said Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Outsourcing America, and "in that respect she is no friend of American IT workers." Hira said that Napolitano believes that employers should have easier access to H-1Bs, "meaning she would try to streamline the application process even more."
In a speech at the National Press Club in February 2007 (download PDF), Napolitano also indicated that she wants to make it easier for foreign graduates of U.S. schools to get green cards, bypassing the need for H-1B visa in those cases. Napolitano believes that after they pass a background check, scientists and engineers "should have a green card stapled to their diplomas."