The long-awaited STEMvisa bill has been introduced into the House of Representatives by powerfulHouse Judiciary Chair Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). Versions of the STEM visa bill have been pushedin the past, but this one might be the best effort for enactment.
The STEM visa bill eliminates the 55,000 visa lottery andreserves these visas for graduates of US Masters Programs in STEM occupations. STEM occupations include Sciences,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The STEM visa bill includes language that limits its usage by someon-line only and for-profit colleges. The bill is expected to have wide support frommany Congressman and Senators. AlthoughPresident Obama has not commented on the bill, the conventional wisdom is thathe would support the bill. ChallengerMitt Romney would almost certainly support the bill. He has advocated that he would “like tostaple a green card to their diploma”.
Although allied healthcare occupations are not listed in thecurrent version of the bill, the bill would help allied occupations by essentiallyincreasing employment-based green card numbers by about 25%. Also, legislators could add healthcare occupationsto the bill prior to enactment or even after enactment.
The biggest holdup to bill is the Congressionalcalendar. The calendar only has a fewmore legislative days between now and the Presidential election on November 6,2012. There may be an active “lame duck”legislative period. The lame duck periodis the period between the elections and the introduction of the new Congressand President in January 2013.
UPDATE (9/18/2012 11:00 AM ET): The Hill is reporting that Sen. Schumer (D-NY) will be introducing a related, although not identical, bill in the Senate. The report also indicates that Rep. Smith’s bill may not only be introduced but passed this week.