High-tech companies looking to bring more skilled workers to the U.S. pushed Monday for more concessions in an immigration bill pending in the Senate.--Many high tech companies are concerned about the number of restrictions designed to ensure U.S. workers get a first shot at jobs and also the calculation for the H-1B Cap

I recently participated in a Consumer Electronics Association sponsored Hangout Supporting the March for Innovation. Here is the video from the discussion with various immigration reform proponents from around the country:

The broad bill requires employers filing visa petitions to first offer a job to an "equally qualified" U.S. worker. Hatch s revised amendment number 12 would impose this requirement only on "H-1B-dependent" companies but clarifies the definition of such companies. The underlying bill also bars companies from displacing a U.S. worker within 90 days of filing a visa petition for an H-1B worker. Hatch s amendment number 13 would shield non-H-1B-dependent companies by allowing them to only stipulate that they do not have the intent to displace U.S. workers. The Schumer-Hatch deal accepts the original intent standard for non-H-1B companies but only for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) positions. For all other professions, there would remain a strict prohibition against displacing workers within 90 days of visa petitions.

The industry achieved its main goals in the draft Senate bill: an easing of the green card process and an expansion of the number of skilled guest worker visas. That draft, though, includes language that it considers excessive regulatory oversight of when a company can hire a temporary foreign worker and lay off an existing American worker--The problem with pushing for more amendments is that it may endanger the entire bill, which would affect millions of people.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee abandoned Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Tuesday in his effort to limit the number of immigrants who could come to the United States, and helped Democrats to kill the amendment in a 1-17 vote--I hate to see what will happen with immigration reform in the GOP controlled House.

Raising the H-1B Cap is seems to be one of the more controversial aspects in these negotiations. Here is the crux of the issue: The discussions are part of an ongoing tug-of-war between technology firms that say the country cannot supply enough skilled workers, whose demands have been championed largely by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and labor groups who say those firms are simply trying to avoid hiring more Americans.

The expansion of the visas, known as H1Bs, is one element of talks among a bipartisan group of eight senators, whose legislation is expected to serve as the basis for a deal between Congress and the White House to retool the immigration system. The number of visas available would approximately double from the current limit of 65,000 per year.