sorry for confusion, here is the reference of my statement
http://www.murthy.com/pdf/19senators.pdf
letter goes like this
WASHINGTON, DC 20510
November 8,2007
The Honorable Michael Chertoff
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Office of the Secretary
3801 Nebraska Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20393
Dear Secretary Chertoff,
We applaud your commitment, announced on August 10, to pursue "potential
administrative reforms to visa programs for the highly skilled." In connection with that
commitment, we urge the Department of Homeland Security to extend the Optional Practical
Training (OPT) period permitted to foreign students from 12 to 29 months.
On April 3,2007, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS)
stopped accepting H-1B visa petitions filed against the FY08 cap. This, in effect, limited the H-
1B filing period to a single day. Because U.S. universities typically award degrees in May or
June, thousands of domestic employers lost the opportunity to file H-1 B petitions on behalf of
foreign graduates who had not yet received their degrees. Consequently, many highly qualified
2007 graduates of U.S. universities who had exhausted their 12-month OPT period during their
course of study were unable to remain in the U.S. and instead accepted positions in competitor
countries. Additionally, because demand for H-1 B visas far exceeded the number of petitions,
many 2006 graduates of U.S. universities who had completed one year of post-graduation OPT
were unable to secure H-1B visas. These professionals were also lost to competitor countries,
and their employers lost the investment made in training the professionals.
We are concerned that the shortage of H-1 B visas for professional workers threatens
America's economic competitiveness. The long-term solution to this problem must come from
Congress, and we are committed to promoting meaningful legislative remedies including
increasing the number of H-1B and employment-based visas and improving administration and
enforcement of visa programs. But in the interim, DHS has ample authority to effect a
regulatory change augmenting the OPT period from 12 to 29 months. This extension would
enable U.S. employers to retain at a critical juncture highly skilled foreign graduates for whom
H-1 B visas are not immediately available.
The extension would also recognize the significance of OPT, which has long performed
an important function by allowing foreign students to complement their U.S. academic training
PAGE 2
with practical field training. The value of OPT would be enhanced further if it could also more
effectively enable highly skilled individuals educated in the U.S. to provide their services to US.
employers without unnecessary interruption while they await permission to change from student
status to professional worker status.
We appreciate your efforts to reform visa programs for highly skilled workers and hope
you will act quickly and sensibly to expand the OPT period. &&- nator Joseph I. Lieberman / /-
Senator John cornyn-
Senator Charles E. Schumer
Senator Orrin G:' Hatch
Senator Robert F. Bennett
Sincerely, <7i/4~-4
/
3 n a t o r Patrick J. Leahy /
Senator Susan M. Collins
Senator C h u c w - #"-
Senator* Alexander
senator John F. Kerry
Senator Daniel K. Akaka
Senator Gordon H. Smith
PAGE 3
i
Senator Mike Crapo / t
--
Senatof George V. Voinovich
Senator Bill Nelson
