Sunday, February 8, 2009

Senate version of the economic rescue plan

OK, here's the full text of the Senate's compromise bill. It is several hundred pages long, so it'll take me some time to condense it.

Meanwhile, here's an interesting provision:

"SEC. 1610. HIRING AMERICAN WORKERS IN COMPANIES RECEIVING TARP FUNDING.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This section may be cited as the ‘‘Employ American Workers Act’’.
(b) PROHIBITION.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, it shall be unlawful for any recipient of funding under title I of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–343) or section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 342 et seq.) to hire any nonimmigrant described in section 101(a)(15)(h)(i)(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(h)(i)(b)) unless the recipient is in compliance with the requirements for an H–1B dependent employer (as defined in section 212(n)(3) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(n)(3))), except that the second sentence of section 212(n)(1)(E)(ii) of such Act shall not apply.
(2) DEFINED TERM.—In this subsection, the term ‘‘hire’’ means to permit a new employee to commence a period of employment.
(c) SUNSET PROVISION.—This section shall be effective during the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act."

If I am reading this correctly, this implies that companies that are taking TARP funds are not permitted to hire new employees on H-1B visas, unless they are entirely in compliance with all the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Not sure if this has any material impact on anything, or am I missing something?

UPDATE: This is a much more thorough analysis of the H-1B clause.

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