Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Representatives Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-Ind.-08) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.-08) introduced the Eliminating Backlogs Act of 2023 to ensure that the United States is properly utilizing the employment-based visas currently allocated each year under existing federal immigration law. This legislation would give greater flexibility to use existing allotted work visas that employers desperately need, but does not change the overall number of visas available.

 

“Under current federal immigration law, there are a certain number of visas allocated annually for skilled workers, such as doctors and engineers, to ensure our workforce can meet the demands of our economy in Indiana and across the country. Unfortunately, bureaucratic policies and delays have prevented hundreds of thousands of these visas from being used, despite a serious need for more skilled workers across our nation. I am proud to work with my colleague, Rep. Krishnamoorthi, to put forward a bill to help eliminate this backlog and ensure that visas allocated under existing federal immigration law can be properly used.  This will help support an immigration system that incentivizes and rewards legal applicants and boosts our economy,” said Dr. Bucshon.

 

“Even as our country’s high-skilled immigration system helps us draw top talent from around the world, current law caps the number of employment-based visas available based on workers’ country of origin, leaving thousands of visas that would otherwise help our economy unused. I’m proud to partner with Congressman Bucshon on this legislation to end country-based discrimination in high-skilled immigration to ensure we use every allotted visa to draw skilled workers from across the globe to help strengthen our economy and create jobs while we also continue to invest in our domestic workforce,” said Rep. Krishnamoorthi.

 

Background:

• Every year Congress allows for a set number of foreign nationals with specific skills and training to come to the U.S. for work. This helps ensure that American businesses have access to the skilled labor force they need to succeed.

Each nation is capped at receiving only seven percent of the allotted employment-based slots in any year. Due to this per-country limitation and bureaucratic delays, U.S. immigration officials failed to utilize approximately 9,100 employment-based visas in FY2020 and over 66,000 in FY2021.