BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SJR 9|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SJR 9
Author: Huff (R), Anderson (R), Berryhill (R), Cannella (R),
Emmerson (R), Fuller
(R), Gaines (R), Knight (R), Nielsen (R), Walters (R), and
Wyland (R), et al.
Amended: 9/3/13
Vote: 21
SENATE FLOOR : 34-0, 5/6/13
AYES: Anderson, Beall, Block, Calderon, Cannella, Corbett,
Correa, De León, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Gaines,
Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson,
Knight, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Monning, Nielsen, Padilla, Pavley,
Price, Roth, Steinberg, Walters, Wright, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill, Lara, Wolk, Yee, Vacancy, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 9/3/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Startup Act 3.0
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This resolution urges the United States Congress and
the President to establish new entrepreneur and science,
technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM)-related visa
categories for legal immigrants as part of comprehensive federal
immigration reform that creates an Entrepreneur's Visa for legal
immigrants, provides authorization to adjust the status of not
more than 50,000 aliens who have earned a master's degree or a
doctorate degree, as specified, to that of aliens conditionally
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admitted for permanent residence, and eliminates per-country
caps for employment-based immigrant visas.
Assembly Amendments add coauthors; add language urging the
establishment of new entrepreneur and STEM-related visa
categories for legal immigrants as part of comprehensive federal
immigration reform; and make technical changes.
ANALYSIS : This resolution makes the following legislative
findings:
1.The United States is a nation of immigrants, with a long
history of welcoming indigents from other nations and giving
them a chance at achieving the American Dream.
2.The United States economy has been enriched by the innovative
and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants from around the
world.
3.Fifty-two percent of Silicon Valley startups between 1995 and
2005 were founded or cofounded by immigrants, generating $52
billion in revenues and employing 450,000 workers.
4.In the past seven years, the national rate of startups by
immigrants has dropped to 42% according to scholars at Harvard
and Duke Universities.
5.The number of foreign nationals with advanced degrees awaiting
permanent-resident status in the U.S. has grown to over one
million in the past several years.
6.Under existing law, only approximately 120,000 visas are
available annually for skilled workers in key employment
categories and only 7% of these visas can be allocated to
immigrants from any one country. Therefore, immigrants from
countries with large populations, like India and China, which
are the source of the vast majority of startups in the United
States, have access to only 8,400 visas per year. The result
of this policy is that many of these highly skilled immigrants
must wait more than a decade for visas.
7.U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), Mark Warner
(D-Virginia), Chris Coons (D-Delaware), and Roy Blunt
(R-Missouri) have introduced S. 310, and U.S. House
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Representatives Michael Grimm (R-New York), Loretta Sanchez
(D-California), and others have introduced H.R. 714 in the
113th Congress of the United States, and this legislation is
known as the Startup Act.
8.There has been bipartisan support in Congress for proposed
changes to immigration law seeking to create new jobs and
drive economic growth, such as (a) creation of an
Entrepreneur's Visa for up to 75,000 legal immigrants who
start up new businesses to create jobs in the United States
with a path to permanent residency if their businesses
continue to hire more workers, (b) authorization to adjust the
status of not more than 50,000 aliens who have earned a
master's degree or a doctorate degree at an American
institution of higher education in a STEM field to that of
aliens conditionally admitted for permanent residence to
remain in this country, and (c) elimination of the per-country
caps for employment-based immigrant visas.
This resolution urges the United States Congress and the
President to establish new entrepreneur and STEM-related visa
categories for legal immigrants as part of comprehensive federal
immigration reform that creates an Entrepreneur's Visa for legal
immigrants, provides authorization to adjust the status of not
more than 50,000 aliens who have earned a master's degree or a
doctorate degree, as specified, to that of aliens conditionally
admitted for permanent residence, and eliminates per-country
caps for employment-based immigrant visas.
Comments
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, a co-author of S. 310 - the Startup
Act 3.0, states in reference to S. 310: "The businesses
high-skilled immigrants create are a source of jobs for
Americans, but at a time when our economy needs jobs first and
foremost, our archaic visa policies have America falling behind.
We are losing jobs and talent by the day to countries like
Canada, Chile and the United Kingdom that have realized
entrepreneurs have been the secret to America's economic success
and have changed their visa policies to aggressively court these
job creators. Startup Act 3.0 would create jobs for Americans
by keeping highly-skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants in the
United States where their talent and new ideas can fuel economic
growth. We don't have the luxury of time - if Congress fails to
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act, we will lose the next generation of great entrepreneurs and
the jobs they create."
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/5/13)
California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 9/3/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray,
Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein,
Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin,
Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea,
V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner,
Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk,
Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Donnelly, Hall, Vacancy, Vacancy
MW:ej 9/5/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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