Another H-1B battle coming?

Another H-1B battle coming?:
"What's new:
Just weeks after the H-1B visa program was expanded, a battle is brewing over how many new foreign skilled workers should be allowed to work in the United Sates on the visas--and under what terms.

Bottom line:
Backers of the guest worker visas say the annual cap of 65,000 is too low, having been reached the first day of this fiscal year. But critics oppose a higher cap as harmful to U.S. workers and call for more worker safeguards.

As the ink on a new law expanding the H-1B visa program begins to dry, another battle is already brewing about how many new foreign skilled workers, including computer professionals, should be allowed to work in the United States on the visas--and under what terms.

Critics of the H-1B program oppose raising the annual cap from its current level of 65,000. Last month, President Bush approved visa program changes, including an exemption to the cap for up to 20,000 foreigners earning graduate degrees at U.S. schools.

This new exemption comes on top of existing exemptions for institutions of higher education, nonprofit research organizations and governmental research organizations. For fiscal years 2000 to 2003, the number of new visas exempt from the annual cap averaged nearly 28,000. (Information about fiscal year 2004 was not yet available.) "