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Moran to introduce updated high-skilled immigration bill this month
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) on Tuesday said he hopes legislation aimed at retaining foreign-born engineers and graduates with advanced technical degrees won't be held "hostage" in the political battle over comprehensive immigration reform.
Moran said he plans to introduce an updated version of his Startup Act 2.0 this month, which includes a provision that would create a new visa allowing foreign students who graduate with a master's or Ph.D. in engineering, science or math fields from a U.S. university to get a green card. The bill also includes measures that would ease tax and regulatory rules, as well as support university initiatives to bring research to the marketplace more quickly.
Moran said he's been told that the bill would stand a better chance of passing if he removed the visa provision, but he contends that the measure is the most critical part of the bill.
"From my perspective, that's the most important piece of this legislation, and while I can't predict ... whether or not a broad-based immigration plan will pass this Congress, there is focus that we know upon that," Moran said at the State of the Net Conference in Washington, D.C. "But I'd hate to see, once again, that things we broadly agree upon are never considered because there's a philosophy around here that if you can't do everything, you can't do anything."
"The only reason that I can see that we can't advance that legislation is there are those who want to hold it hostage for other items in a immigration agenda," he said. "And I worry a bit politically that while there's now [a] focus upon immigration issues and immigration policy that there may be those who want to use this topic one more time for politics and keep raising the standard by which legislation is satisfactory."
Moran noted that seven countries have changed their immigration laws to attract entrepreneurs during his brief time in the Senate. In particular, he said Chile has recruited entrepreneurs from across the globe to start companies within its country.
He warned that the U.S. risks losing its competitiveness globally by dragging its feet on reforming its immigration laws and allowing engineers and graduates with advanced degrees to stay in the country.
"The problem is that while we wait for the political resolution of broad-based immigration legislation, other countries are not waiting and we are losing the opportunities for entrepreneurship and those individuals here," Moran said.
Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) are also co-sponsors of the Startup Visa Act.
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