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STEM Bill Fails in House

A Republican bill aimed at providing green cards for foreign graduates of American universities with advanced degrees in science and technology failed to pass in the House on September 20, 2012.  The final vote was 257-158 in favor of the bill, far short of the two thirds majority needed to pass.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), would have allocated 55,000 green cards annually to foreigners who have completed master’s and doctorate degrees from American universities in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  However, the bill also proposed to eliminate the Diversity Visa Program, which currently allocates 55,000 green cards to foreign nationals of countries with low rates of immigration to the United States through an annual lottery.

While there is Congressional bipartisan support to pass legislation that would promote economic growth and job creation by keeping talented and highly educated foreign science and technology graduates in the United States, most Democrats are unwilling to do so at the expense of the Diversity Visa or any other immigration program.  In fact, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) have competing bills, neither of which would eliminate the Diversity Visa Program.

“We strongly oppose a zero-sum game that trades one legal immigration program for another,” noted Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan).

Technology and business groups have been appealing for a bipartisan effort to pass some legislation to provide new visas.  Currently, many foreign science and technology graduates who finish their advanced studies either have to leave the country or remain on restrictive temporary work visas and wait, sometimes for years, for green cards.  It remains to be seen whether one of the two competing bills will be passed before this session of Congress ends in the next few months.