The House voted down a financial aid plan for workers displaced by trade deals and, in so doing, dealt a blow to the fast-track trade authority sought by President Obama. The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) measure was subsequently approved by a narrow margin but, under the rules for debate, the overall package could not advance unless both parts cleared the House.
In an attempt to generate more opposition to the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., issued a statement that highlights the dangers of the fast-track process. He said that under TPA, trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership or the Trade in Services Agreement could establish broad goals for increasing immigration and the President could implement those changes through executive action or easily change our laws through the fast-track process.
A bipartisan coalition of Senators announced that the U.S. Department of Labor has launched an investigation of Infosys and Tata, two foreign outsourcing companies. According to Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), these companies imported H-1B guestworkers to replace hundreds of American workers at Southern Cal Edison, one of the country’s largest power companies.
The Senators released the following statement:
H.R.2758 would exempt a foreign worker who has held a H-2B non-agricultural guest worker visa over the previous three years from the current H-2B annual caps. This bill would likely triple the number of H-2B visas issued to foreign workers each year.
A complicated series of votes on trade legislation will begin today, culminating in Friday votes on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation and the so-called Customs bill that contains the unsatisfactory immigration “fix.” The process is designed to placate Democratic and Republican Members who would otherwise vote against TPA, but the strategy is risky for House Republican leaders.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, secured an agreement from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., to add new trade negotiation objectives to the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act that seek to ensure that trade deals will not change U.S. immigration law or expand access to visas. However this immigration "fix" does not allay the concerns of other Republicans who say the bill, which is separate from Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation, may not be signed into law and worry that a trade "living agreement' can be changed without recourse after congressional consideration.
A bill to provide high-skilled visas for nationals of the Republic of Korea, and for other purposes.
Now we are getting somewhere. Last week, I expressed hope that the New York Times' series on Disney workers who were forced to train their foreign replacements would lead to similar reporting on less-skilled American workers harmed by policies of mass immigration.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked DHS to reconsider regulations that would allow foreign students with degrees in STEM fields up to six years of post-graduation employment under the Optimal Practical Training Program. Sen. Grassley said the proposal is “irresponsible and dangerous considering the Government Accountability Office report issued in March 2014 finding that the program was full of inefficiencies, susceptible to fraud, and that the Department was not adequately overseeing it.”
