“A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to reform the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section states congressional findings concerning the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program and the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, including that (1) the H-1B program is being used to supplant U.S. workers with inexpensive foreign labor; (2) 60% of H-1B visas are assigned wage levels substantially below local median wages for relevant occupations; (3) hiring non-U.S. workers at wages substantially below median levels, adjusted for locality and occupation, disincentivizes hiring U.S. workers; (4) in 2024, the eight companies receiving the most initial H-1B approvals were Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Apple, continuing a 10-year trend; and (5) the OPT program, which was established without explicit congressional authorization, was expanded by the Obama Administration for science, technology, engineering, or math degree holders to allow work in the U.S. for up to three years while waiving employer payroll tax withholding obligations, functioning as a tax break that incentivizes not employing U.S. workers.
This section terminates the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program—which authorizes F-1 nonimmigrant students (i.e., foreign nationals pursuing a full course of study at a U.S. academic institution) to receive temporary employment authorization related to their field of study, including post-completion work authorization of up to 12 months (or 36 months for STEM fields)—and prohibits employment authorization for F-1 students beyond completion of their course of studies. It further requires denial of all pending OPT applications for F-1 students as of enactment and refunds of associated fees.
This section revises labor condition application requirements for H-1B nonimmigrant petitions (i.e., temporary visas for employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations) by (1) replacing the existing wage requirement with a mandate that employers offer an annual wage that is the greater of the wage paid to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident performing identical or similar work during the prior two years or a $150,000 floor (adjusted annually thereafter by the Consumer Price Index beginning July 1 after enactment); (2) limiting H-1B visas to one year or less if any work will occur at a third-party worksite; (3) prohibiting H-1B visas for third-party worksite assignments unless they are specific, nonspeculative, and cover the entire petition period; and (4) requiring approval prioritization for petitions offering higher wages over those offering lower wages, regardless of filing order.
This section provides a rule of construction clarifying that nothing in this Act or its amendments authorizes any federal agency to grant work authorization to any alien through any program not authorized by an Act of Congress.