By Hope Gillette
Even though a bill granting U.S. visas to foreigners who completed advanced science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degrees received a majority vote in the House of Representatives, it failed to achieve the needed two-thirds majority to meet approval.
The proposal was instead suspended with a vote of 257 in favor compared to 158 who were opposed. According to Computer World, the inclination toward approval of the bill had many lawmakers discussing what the next reasonable options were.
“A bipartisan compromise can easily be ready for the lame duck session,” U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement. “There is too broad a consensus in favor of this policy to settle for gridlock.”
Those who were opposed to the STEM visa plan claimed it discouraged legal immigration into the country, but with the U.S severely lacking in STEM workforce, concerns have been raised that suspension of the bill only hurts the United States’ future.
“Unfortunately, Democrats today voted to send the best and brightest foreign graduates back home to work for our global competitors,” Representative Lamar Smith (R) of Texas said in a statement after the vote. “Their vote against this bill is a vote against economic growth and job creation.”
It is the crucial STEM areas in which the U.S. is facing a crisis, reports the Huffington Post. The current STEM workforce accounts for 50 percent of the nation’s economic growth; however, only 5 percent of workers are in STEM fields. Of those, many are passing into retirement without replacements.
The Face the Facts USA initiative from George Washington University states only 1 in 10 diplomas handed out in 2009 were for STEM degrees, and the small percentage of graduates does little to impact the more than 3 million empty STEM jobs around the country.
By eliminating the option of visas for immigrants who pursue advanced STEM degrees, the U.S. is potentially losing out on harnessing the potential of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants in the nation.
“We don’t know where our next great innovators will come from, and we ought not close the doors on those who have been waiting patiently to have their number called in some far-off corner of the world,” said House minority whip Steny Hoyer (D) of Maryland about the failed STEM visa bill. “That lottery is not only their salvation, but also our benefit. It is part of what makes America great.”
Originally published by VOXXI as “STEM visa bill rejected: what it means for the United States“
[Image Via Glyn Lowe Photoworks]
