The following is collected and archived by CND-US. If you have any questions regarding the following information/message, please contact the original sender(s) listed below. Thank You. China News Digest - US Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- From hq@ifcss.org Sun Sep 24 19:17:31 1995 X-Sender: zx11@postoffice.mail.cornell.edu From: hq@ifcss.org (ifcss) Subject: Re: Ask For Help ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _From: IFCSS Headquarters, HQ NR #7037 September 23, 1995 hq@ifcss.org Marking Up of House Bill H.R. 2202 (II) and "CSS House Ringing Drive" 1. Update Information of Marking Up H.R. 2202 in House 2. "CSS House Ringing Drive" 3. The future Trend of H.R. 2202 1. Update Information of Marking Up H.R. 2202 in House On September 20, and 21, the House Judiciary Committee experienced fierce debates over the process of marking up H.R. 2202. Fifteen amendments, on the second day and a dozen more, yesterday, were put on the table for modifications of the bill. Due to the huge volumn of H. R. 2202, the process was just touching the Title V by the end of yesterday after whole three days of debates and negotiations. After most of Democrats' amendments to soften the bill, were killed in the first two days, there had been several beams of positive lights shed on the third day. Firstly, the process was delayed, and it is difficult for Lamar Smith to push it pass by the end of this month. The Committee can not find time to mark up the whole Title V until next Wednesday, which leaves us more time to voice up our opposition on a varity of provisions in this Title, which is supposed to affect CSS' interests most including employ- ment oppotunities after graduation; Secondly, Committee Chair Henry Hyde, Republican of IL, introduced an amendment to strike the requirement that 50% of children must live in the U.S. for parent to immigration, which passed without discussion. Hyde's action is spread out as a triumph among the Coalition Groups for the vigorous lobby well done in the past weeks. * * * * * 2. The IFCSS Headquarters launched a "CSS House Ringing Drive" and appealed to Chinese student and scholars to join it within the next three to four days before the marking up of Title V and the rest. The Headquarters sent personal appeals to more than forty CSSA leaders for spreading messages among CSS by this afternoon. The timing will be perfect if we CSS call or send fax messages to members' offices before they make final decisions to propose, support or oppose the amendments. The theme could focus on opposi- tion of restrictions and cuts of "technical" immigration, employ- ment of skilled workers and researchers as defined in NR #7035. Make the lawmaker or their staffs be aware that the restriction is as unacceptable as the number cut, because the restriction in fact reduce the emplyment as well. IFCSS President Xing Zheng had a brief chance to make an inquiry to Mr. Lamar Smith during the recess yesterday that, what was his rationale to harshly cut the technology-based immigration and employment. To our surprise, Mr. Smith responded, "My bill does not. My bill actually increases the skills and education based immigrations". Indeed, in H.R. 2202, the current allocation (total 110,000) is increased to 120,000. However, the tricks here are: firstly, employment opportunity will be much fewer due to more strict requirements, like "minimal salary", "labor certificate", "verification system", "experience of five to seven years after graduation", etc. , making protection of jobs for Americans; Secondly, the absolute number of the 1st/2nd preference immigra- tion for professionals with advanced degrees is reduced; Thirdly, a huge amount of allocations will be used by family immigration for its backlogs, if no enough qualified applicants are approved. How to be more qualified? Mr. Smith knows. When you call the office, present something in principle but not going to detail too much if the staff, who picks up your phone, is just an "Appoint. Secret.". It is better to send brief messages by fax, making your sentences eye-catching! * * * * * 3. The Future Trend of H.R. 2202 _From some amendments, arguments and counter-arguments in the past three days, it is reasonbly believed that almost all concerns about this bill have caught the attention of respective lawmakers, and points were addressed quite strongly and clearly. The lobby works definitely to some extents. However, Smith and his allies, including Democrat Bryant made also very strong points, mirrored by present U.S. public emotion, and political dynamics, which made the main efforts of the Committee merely in the track of just modification, but no drastic change and spliting up, let alone the idea of blocking it. As IFCSS Task Force counted up to September 22, there had been totally 121 Representatives to co-sponsor H. R. 2202 (with 95 of them Republican). More gravily in this Judiciary Committee, we can now count on up to 17 members including two Democrats who have officially co-sponsored this bill, as Smith claimed that he had already got a majority for support in this Committee in his Opening Statement of the mark-up process (total is 35). We could sense clearly that more under-table bargainings are undergoing for improvement, but passage of it was not a big issue. Republi- cans could give in or propose themselves some softening amendments, in order finally to get it through...and we were also informed President Bill Clinton said last week that he would like illegal and legal immigration reform legistration on his desk before the end of the year! Clinton's remarks can be interpreted in many ways, Lamar Smith, however, responded straighforward: "I think we should accommodate him!" That is all IFCSS Headquarters is aware of at this moment. How to face the reality? We know, and you know, too. Please join in "CSS House Ringing Drive" from the coming weekend, through next Wednesday! Thank you. ********************************************************************* * PBS-L is IFCSS's news distribution list for individuals. To sign * * on or off from the list, please send email to listserv@ifcss.org * * leave the subject line open and put in the mail body: * * (For signing on) sub PBS-L last name first name * * (For signing off) unsub PBS-L last name first name * * For more information about IFCSS, write to ifcss-info@ifcss.org * *********************************************************************