Partnership for a New American Economy

U.S. News and World Report
December 7, 2012

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As Congress and the president seize the bipartisan opportunity to address the legal, social, and moral components of a comprehensive immigration bill, they should include in the package high-skill visa reform so that we strengthen America's economic competitiveness as well.

Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies in the United States were started by immigrants or the children of immigrants. From 1995 to 2005, half of Silicon Valley startups had an immigrant founder and in 2005 alone those businesses did $52 billion in sales creating more than 400,000 jobs. Iconic American companies that built whole new industries like US Steel, Dupont, Google, eBay, Honeywell, and Intel were started by immigrant founders. Chobani Yogurt, founded in 2005 by the immigrant entrepreneur Hamdi Ulukaya in upstate New York, has created 1,500 American jobs.

Just as we find common ground that unites families and protects communities, so too should we ensure that the world's most talented innovators and entrepreneurs who are educated in our great universities are able to stay and contribute, rather than be forced to set up competitor businesses abroad.
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The Roanoke Times
December 2, 2012

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It hardly seems controversial to suggest that the U.S. needs to do more to retain potential job creators, rather than educating them and sending them back to their home countries to compete against us. But there has been a reluctance in Congress to pick off easier reforms rather than include them in more comprehensive laws that also address more difficult issues, like creating a path to citizenship for the millions of people living in this country without legal status.

"We can wait around forever to pass something, and while we're waiting, other countries are rolling out the red carpet for the best and the brightest," said John Feinblatt, the chief policy adviser to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leader in the immigration partnership.
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Wall Street Journal
December 3, 2012

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Allowing skilled immigrants to stay in the U.S. would fill the hundreds of thousands of job vacancies expected in the sciences and technology. An increase in skilled immigrants would jump-start the economy. They would support the housing market by increasing demand. The best way to raise tax revenues is by adding new workers paying taxes, not by having fewer people paying more in taxes.

The U.S. has long been a haven for immigrants, giving the country a comparative advantage in attracting talented people. There is now global competition. Human capital will keep coming only so long as the U.S. has the wisdom to reopen its borders.

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The Province
November 30, 2012

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday to make green cards accessible to foreign students graduating with advanced science and math degrees from U.S. universities, setting up what is expected to be a turbulent battle over immigration policy next year.

Even this limited step, strongly backed by the high-tech industry, is unlikely to go anywhere this session of Congress, indicating how difficult it will be to find lasting solutions to the nation's much-criticized immigration system.

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The White Mountain Independent
November 30, 2012

Following the results of the election, there appears to be a real window in Washington, D.C. to do something meaningful on immigration.

The just reelected president has made immigration reform a first tier priority. And many Republicans believe that dealing with this issue is essential to restoring to their party some attractiveness with the two fastest growing groups of immigrants: Asians and Hispanics. Both groups clobbered the GOP in the election, with approximately 66 percent of Hispanics breaking for the president and Asians going into the president’s column at a whopping 73 percent.

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The Information Technology Industry Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Partnership for a New American Economy have released a new study, "Help Wanted: The Role of Foreign Workers in the Innovation Economy," which analyzes employment data in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to give evidence that foreign-born STEM workers are complementing – not displacing – their American counterparts, and that the American economy is facing a shortage of STEM talent.

Click here to read the report.

November 30, 2012
www.RenewOurEconomy.org

STATEMENT FROM PARTNERSHIP FOR A NEW AMERICAN ECONOMY CO-CHAIR AND NEW YORK CITY MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ON PASSAGE OF THE STEM JOBS ACT IN THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Bill Provides Green Cards for Foreign-Born Graduates with Advanced STEM Degrees and Reunites Families by Providing Visas to Spouses and Children of Current Green Card Holders

Following today’s passage of the STEM Jobs Act of 2012 (H.R. 6429), the bill introduced by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) that provides 55,000 green cards for foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities with advanced degrees in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), and reunites families by providing visas to spouses and children of current green card holders, the Partnership for a New American Economy released the below statement from Co-Chair Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City:

“It is a promising sign that one of the House of Representatives’ first major legislative actions post-election is to pass an immigration bill that focuses on attracting and retaining the talented workforce our economy needs to compete globally. This bill will hopefully begin a renewed focus on the need to overhaul an immigration system formed in the age of the typewriter and modernize it for a digital age.”

The Partnership was founded in 2010 to make the economic case that immigration reform will help grow the economy and create new American jobs. In the past two years, the Partnership has produced series of reports with research demonstrating the value of STEM immigration reform to the US economy. The Partnership’s research shows that:

Winona Daily News
November 30, 2012

The lessons taken from this month’s election may vary, but the one thing we all agree on is that getting our economy moving again must be our top priority.

We have an opportunity to come together to bring high-skilled immigrants into our workforce and boost economic growth, and to reunite families.

The House will vote today on the STEM Jobs Act, a bill introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, that will award 55,000 visas to foreign graduates of U.S. universities with doctoral and master’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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The Hill
November 29, 2012

The House voted Thursday to advance a visa reform bill that Republicans say would help keep talented foreign students in the United States, but which Democrats say would needlessly eliminate another key visa program.

Members voted 243-170 in favor of a rule for H.R. 6429, the STEM Jobs Act. That bill would eliminate a visa program for countries with low rates of emigration to the United States, and hand those visas to foreign students with degrees in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM).

Approval of the rule sets up 90 minutes of debate, which will happen on Friday just before the House is expected to approve the legislation.

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National Journal
November 29, 2012

Despite White House opposition, the House appears likely to pass a bill this week that would allow more foreign students who graduate from U.S. schools with advanced technical degrees to stay in the country.

The House failed to pass the bill, drafted by Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, when it was brought to the floor in September under a procedure that requires a two-thirds vote to pass. But based on the vote from that first attempt, the legislation appears to have enough support to pass the chamber this week by a majority vote.

The bill would eliminate the Diversity Visa Program and shift up to 55,000 green cards a year to foreign students who graduate from qualified U.S. schools with a doctorate or master’s degree in the “STEM” disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and math.

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