US President Donald Trump's decision to bar federal agencies from giving projects to foreign entities with workers on H-1B visa is based on misperceptions and misinformation, according to Nasscom

“The order is particularly coming at a time when there is a huge shortage of STEM skills in the US, that workers on short-term non-immigrant visas like H-1B and L-1 help bridge,” Nasscom said in a statement.

The unemployment rate for computer occupations (those most common amongst H-1B visa holders) declined from 3 per cent in January 2020 to 2.5 per cent in May 2020, while unemployment rate for all other occupations grew from 4.1 per cent to 13.5 per cent in the same period.

Further, in the 30-day period ended May 13, 2020, there were over 625,000 active job vacancy postings advertised online for jobs in common computer occupations, including those most common to H-1B visa holders.u

Buy American, Hire American

The White House said that it follows Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order from April 2017 and takes further action to prevent Americans from being displaced by foreign workers.” The order directs the heads of each federal department and agency to review the use of offshore services as well as temporary foreign labour (H-1Bs, L-1s) in the execution of contracts awarded in FY18 and FY19 2018 and issue a report within 120 days to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

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The report will summarise the results of the reviews, recommending, if necessary, corrective actions that may be taken by the agency and timeframes to implement such actions; and proposing any Presidential actions that may be appropriate to ensure compliance with past executive actions and statutory requirements. The reports will also assess impacts on US workers, the US economy, national security, and the efficiency of Federal procurement.

Additionally, the executive order also requires the Secretaries of Labor and Homeland Security to “take action” within 45 days “to protect United States workers from any adverse effects on wages and working conditions caused by the employment of H-1B visa holders at job sites (including third-party job sites).”

This underscores and sets a timeline for the agencies to finalise and publish some of the regulatory measures that have been discussed by the Administration and mentioned again in the June Proclamation. These may include the changes to the definitions of “specialty occupation”, “employer”, and “employer-employee relationship”.

"As the world opens up post the Covid-19 induced lockdowns, it is important for the US to be able to access talent critical to the recovery phase. Measures that restrict access to talent will slow-down the recovery phase of US economy, jobs, innovation and R&D,” Nasscom said.

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