Kevin McCarthy, 140 GOP Reps Vote for Democrat Plan to Outsource Jobs

GOP legislators (140) voted for a bill drafted by business groups and Democrats which provides a green card giveaway to 300,000 Indian contract workers and dramatically increases the incentives for more Indian graduates to take college graduate jobs in the United States.

The 365- to-65 vote means the bill moves to the Senate, where GOP Senators are pushing a matching giveaway bill which is backed by Democrat Senator and presidential hopeful, Sen. Kamala Harris. Only 57 of 197 GOP legislators — and only eight Democrats — present voted against the giveaway.

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The bill also helps U.S. real-estate investors by extending the green-card giveaway to the Chinese leaders who use the EB-5 program to buy green cards for their families.

The Senate’s version of the bill was halted in late June when Sen. Rand Paul blocked a “unanimous consent” maneuver by GOP Utah Sen. Mike Lee. But Paul may switch his vote, allowing Lee to repeat his “unanimous consent” maneuver. Lee is backed by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate’s judiciary committee.

Business groups touted the win before the vote. Via Twitter, Andrew Moriarty, deputy director of federal policy at Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us advocacy group compared the HR.1044 “country caps” bill to the Democrats’ DACA-amnesty bill:

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In the Senate, GOP leaders may choose to block the giveaway bill, in part, because it is being pushed by Sen. Kamala Harris, who may be the Democrats’ challenger in 2020.

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Throughout the run-up to the brief House debate, the House GOP leadership kept a low profile as the giveaway bill was protested by immigration reform groups, including NumbersUSA, the Federation for American Immigration reform, ALIPC and other groups. Hill staffers reported that the phone lines were clogged by the pro-American groups.

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The legislation offers roughly 75,000 extra green cards per year to encourage Indian graduates to become contract workers in the United States.

Indian graduates use the H-1B visa program and the Optional Practical Training program to seek low-wage job offers for U.S. white-collar jobs that are also sought by the 800,000 Americans who graduate from college each year with new degrees in healthcare, engineering, business, science, math, computers or science.

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Shortly before the vote, McCarthy’s election campaign announced a record haul of political contributions:

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In the brief floor debate on Wednesday, GOP legislators repeatedly praised the bill because it helps imported workers, investors, and companies. They did not explain how it might help American graduates, middle-class voters, and professional employees.

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The Democrats’ giveaway bill was also by a new wave of groups created by Americans who say their incomes have been slashed by companies’ use of the green card system to attract and pay cheap white-collar labor from India. During the last year, these professionals have organized into several groups, including the American Workers Coalition, doctorswithoutjobs.com, ProUSworkers, No on H.R. 1044, and The Multinational Coalition Against H.R. 1044/S. 386. In 2018, these American opponents of the green card giveaway bill helped defeat Kansas GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder, who supported a prior version of the legislation.

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