Grassley is not the only Senator advocate of reigning in the H1B program. He and D--k Durbin, the Democratic Senator from Illinois, have been working together in complete agreement on this for years, but their attempts have been stymied time and again by other members of the Senate, particularly Orin Hatch, the Republican Senator from Utah.
Fortunately, Senators Grassley and Durbin do have some support, mainly from Jeff Sessions, the Republican Senator from Alabama, who is currently one of Trump's key advisers.
The point I am making is we must be careful not to let this become a partisan issue and, while at the same time, not be deceived into thinking by either party that paying H1B's more is somehow a comprehensive solution. It is not. It may be all that Grassley and Durbin (after years of honest effort) can come up with to garner support by their colleagues, but it is not enough.
Remember, also, that as more and more decently-compensated Americans are laid off and replaced with lower paid workers, the prevailing wage is being driven down. Paying an H1B the prevailing wage means little and could only exacerbate the trend.
This is not a left or right issue. If Trump and the new Congress can do something meaningful, then that is good. BUT, it must be meaningful and not some wet Band-aid solution. There are many politicians on both sides of the aisle that have been bought and paid for by corporations and will oppose any meaningful change.
I personally am against increasing the wages of H1B's because that, in itself, will not force the Indian management, who have taken over IT at Verizon, from continuing the abuse of the program.
The real solution requires severe rollbacks of parts of the program.
First, require absolute proof that a company has advertised for qualified Americans for an extended amount of time.
Second, impose severe penalties if the job description contains obscure qualifications that exclude Americans who have not padded their resumes. Double those penalties if the work performed by an H1B does not meet the qualifications stated in the job description.
Third, reduce the amount of time an H1B can stay in the US. If the job they were hired to do ends before that time, they must leave.
Fourth, roll back the provision that allows spouses and children of H1B's to be employed in the US unless they have secured their own H1B.
Fifth, eliminate the provision allowing multinational contracting firms from applying for H1B visas. If A company such as Verizon needs an H1B, they must apply for it themselves. This will increase transparency as to how many H1B's are actually employed at said company.
Sixth - L1 Visas - eliminate the provision allowing multinational contracting firms from applying for L1 visas.
For those that don't know, an L1 visa allows a multinational corporation to transfer an employee from outside the country into the US. This program is abused as much if not more than the H1B program. A large contracting firm simply transfers a person from the India office to the US office and then contracts him or her out to Verizon. They justify it by saying the employee was needed to do critical work here in the states. It is a gross abuse of the original intention of the L1 Program.
Furthermore, any requirement to pay H1B's the prevailing wage (which only in a fool's dream will make an Indian manager at Verizon consider an American over an Indian for the same pay) will have no effect on how much (or little) an L1 is paid. L1's are paid whatever crumbs are leftover after the contracting firm takes their share of what Verizon pays the firm for the contractor's services.
The entire H1B and L1 visa programs need to be completely dismantled and re-made so that ONLY the truly talented can enter the country.
Changing the law to pay H1B's more IS NOT the solution.