On October 1, 2004, the very first day of the new fiscal year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials announced that the H-1B cap on visas for highly educated foreign professionals had been reached. Reports indicate that exhaustion of the cap on H-2B nonagricultural seasonal workers may not be far behind. Unless Congress takes action before the end of this congressional session, employers will be facing an H visa "blackout" for almost an entire year.

While the H-1B and H-2B programs deal with very different types of foreign workers, both programs fill a vital role for our nation’s businesses, small and large. Without access to H-1B visas, U.S. employers will be unable to hire the professionals with cutting-edge knowledge and skills—including recent graduates from top U.S. universities with advanced degrees in math and science—to develop new products, engage in groundbreaking research, create new jobs, and compete in the global marketplace. There still are not enough U.S. students interested in pursuing advanced degrees to fill these highly specialized positions and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for these graduates will only increase.

Foreign nationals account for roughly half of all Master’s and PhD graduates in math, science and engineering. If we cannot keep this U.S.-educated talent in the U.S., our competitors abroad will profit. In fact, several European countries recently have updated their immigration laws to attract highly educated talent. A workable H-1B program that protects U.S. employers’ access to highly educated foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. universities with advanced degrees will keep the world’s brightest minds in the U.S. and help retain American jobs.

While the H-1B program gives U.S. employers a means to access highly educated foreign professionals, the H-2B program is instrumental in providing employers with essential workers where no U.S. workers are available. H-2B visa holders help keep the doors of American businesses open. These workers include restaurant, landscape, food production, and hotel service workers. They fill the rosters of our minor league hockey and baseball teams, teach our kids to ski, and repair helicopters that fight summer forest fires.

Currently the H-2B program is capped at 66,000 visas per year. This number has not been adjusted since the visa category was initially capped in 1990 yet, during that time, improvements in education and other factors have hampered U.S. employers’ ability to find and hire willing American workers for seasonal positions. Without increased access to this visa category, many seasonal businesses across the nation will have to close their doors.

It is important that Congress takes action to provide U.S. employers with adequate access to needed professional and seasonal workers. Failure to do so will adversely affect the full spectrum of American businesses.