ARLINGTON, VA - Dave McCurdy, President and CEO of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), today thanked Representative John Shadegg (R-AZ) for introducing the "SKIL Bill" last night in the House of Representatives.

"The reforms proposed in the SKIL Bill are critical to guaranteeing that U.S. industry can continue to hire the workers it needs from around the world," McCurdy said. "The H-1B and employment based visa programs have brought us tremendous foreign talent that has helped spur American innovation, grown our economy and made the United States more competitive throughout the world.

"These visa programs are broken and if not fixed, will have serious consequences for the U.S. economy. A shortage of H-1Bs and a backlog of green card shortages means highly educated and highly trained foreign workers will have to return home and work for our competitors.

It's important for our economy to succeed, and to do so, we must have the best trained and most educated workers in the world. The SKIL Bill helps us achieve that.:

The SKIL Bill (Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership) provides exemptions for U.S. educated foreign workers with master's or higher degrees from the H-1B and EB green card quotas; it creates a flexible and market-based H-1B market cap so that U.S. employers are not locked out of hiring the best people for a year at a time; it extends from 12 to 24 months a students' post curricular optional practical training so that they can more easily obtain a green card; and it provides exemptions for EB green cards for immigrant spouses and children from the annual cap, making more visas available to even more highly educated workers.

"I want to thank Congressman Shadegg and the nine co-sponsors for introducing this legislation. EIA believes their bill is a reasonable solution to an immigration system that urgently needs reform," McCurdy concluded.

The co-sponsors of the SKIL Bill are Representatives John Campbell (R-CA), K. Michael Conaway (R-TX), John T. Doolittle (R-CA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Mike Pence (R-IN), John M. Shimkus (R-IL), and Todd Tiahrt (R-KS).

A companion measure, S. 2691 was introduced in the Senate last month by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

About EIA: The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) is the leading advocate in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. high-tech industry. The Alliance, which traces its origins to the Radio Manufacturers Association (chartered in 1924), is a partnership of electronic and high-tech associations and companies whose mission is to promote the market development and competitiveness of the $400 billion U.S. high-tech and electronics industries through domestic and international policy efforts. EIA's corporate members - nearly 1,300 - provide products and services ranging from microscopic electronic components to state-of-the-art defense, space and industry high-tech systems, as well as the full range of telecommunications and consumer electronics products. Headquartered in Arlington, Va., the Alliance is made up of the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA); the Government Electronics & Information Technology Association (GEIA); JEDEC; the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA); and leading consumer electronics companies who participate in EIA's Environmental Issues Council. EIA is also heavily involved in cyber security issues through the Internet Security Alliance (ISAlliance), and education issues, through the National Science & Technology Education Partnership (NSTEP).