Greenspan wants H-1B visa program extended
May 01 2009 by Gareth McConnell
The former Federal Reserve Chairman and expert economist Alan Greenspan has called for radical changes to US immigration policy including almost doubling the size of the H-1B visa program.
Plans to increase the size of the program from 65,000 to 115,000 were turned down by the Senate in 2007, but appearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on US Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, Greenspan called for the overhaul again.
"U.S. schools don’t produce enough skilled workers and the shortfall needs to be filled with highly skilled overseas workers with advanced degrees," he argued.
“If we are to continue to engage the world and enhance our standards of living, we will have to either markedly improve our elementary and secondary education or lower our barriers to skilled immigrants,” Greenspan said.
During the 2007 debate into US immigration reform the Senate devoted 36 days of floor for consideration without success.
“No one is happy with our current system,” said New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, the subcommittee’s chairman, said as the hearing began. “There is a recognition in America that the status quo is not working.”
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