Consideration Of Singapore & Chile Agreements Continues -- California Institute Capitol Hill Bulletin -- Volume 10, Bulletin 20 -- July 11, 2003

The House Judiciary Committee met on Thursday, July 10 to make recommendations to the Administration on the recently negotiated U.S.-Chile and U.S. Singapore Free Trade Agreements (FTA). Under the Trade Promotion Authority legislation passed last year once the Administration submits the agreements to Congress, which is expected to happen next week, no changes will be possible. Thus, the Committee held an informal "mock-up" session to recommend changes to the Administration before it submits the formal agreements next week.

The Committee's action was limited to the immigration provisions in the agreements. Under both agreements, a new category (W-9) of non-immigrant professional worker visa would be established; the Singapore FTA would allow 5,000 visas to be granted annually under this category, and the Chile FTA 1,400 visas. Chair James Sensenbrenner (WI), Ranking Member John Conyers (MI) and several other Committee members were very disturbed that the Administration was modifying U.S. immigration policy through foreign trade agreements. Citing the Constitutional delegation of power over immigration to Congress and the legislative jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee, the Members urged the Administration not to modify immigration laws in future trade agreements and to make the changes to the Chile and Singapore FTAs recommended by the Committee.

Rep. Steve King (IA) offered an amendment that embodied the negotiations the Committee had with the Administration to resolve the problem with the immigration issues in the FTAs. Under the King amendment, the new Chile and Singapore visas would be counted against the cap on H1-B skilled worker visas and subject to the H1-B verification, anti-strike, and lock-out provisions, as well as the $1,000 application fee.

The King amendment was amended by a Conyers-Howard Berman (Valley Village) amendment that would also require that if five or more one-year extensions of the Chile and Singapore visas were granted, those extensions would also count against the H1-B cap. The amendment was accepted by voice vote and the King amendment was then accepted by voice vote.

According to Chairman Sensenbrenner, the Administration has agreed to make the King amendment modifications to the FTAs before submitting them to Congress. Although that understanding did not extend to the Conyers-Berman amendment, Administration representatives at the Committee meeting agreed that the amendment did not violate the terms of the FTA and would be given serious consideration before they were sent to Congress.

The House Ways and Means Committee, and the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees also held informal sessions on the FTAs in anticipation of the Administration's formal sending the implementing legislation to Congress next week.

For further information on these meetings, see the respective Committee websites at: http://www.house.gov/judiciary, http://www.house.gov/waysandmeans, http://www.senate.gov/~judiciary, and http://www.senate.gov/~finance .

To expand communications between Washington and California, the California Institute provides periodic bulletins regarding current activity on Capitol Hill that directly impacts our state. Bulletins are published weekly during sessions of Congress, and occasionally during other periods.

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