{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.billnelson.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/lawmakers-seek-to-cut-number-of-h-1b-visas-available-each-year", "Lawmakers seek to cut number of H-1B visas available each year", "2015-12-08", "2015", "2015-12", "Democrat", "House", "FL", "Bill Nelson", "N000032", "www.billnelson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.  U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) filed legislation today that would cut the number of H-1B visas available each year.\nCongress created the H-1B visa program in 1990 to allow a limited number of highly specialized workers to enter the U.S. to fill jobs where there was said to be a shortage of U.S. workers. Under current law, the Department of Homeland Security may grant up to 85,000 H-1B visas to highly-specialized foreign workers each year.\nNelsons bill, filed today with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), would reduce the number of visas available by 15,000. And it would also require the Department of Homeland Security to prioritize the allocation of these 70,000 H-1B visas to foreign workers based on their salary.\nBy cutting the number of visas available each year and requiring those visas be given to the highest-wage earners first, this bill directly targets outsourcing companies that rely on lower-wage foreign workers to replace equally-qualified U.S. workers, Nelson said.\nNelson says the measure will help ensure that the H-1B visa program is once again being used as it was originally intended: to attract foreign workers with highly specialized skills not found among the available U.S. workforce.\nLast month, Nelson and a handful of his Senate colleagues filed a separate piece of legislation to reform the H-1B visa program. Specifically, it would prohibit any employer from replacing a U.S. worker with an H-1B visa holder. It would also require employers to prove that they first tried to recruit American workers prior to hiring an H-1B visa holder and bar companies that employ more than 50 people from hiring any additional H-1B employees if more than half of their employees are already H-1B visa holders.\nThe text of the bill Nelson filed today is available here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.billnelson.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/lawmakers-seek-to-cut-number-of-h-1b-visas-available-each-year"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.564898993819952, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}