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[Congressional Record: October 31, 2000 (House)] [Page H11699-H11701] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:cr31oc00-67] PROVIDING FOR SPECIAL IMMIGRANT STATUS FOR CERTAIN U.S. INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING EMPLOYEES Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 3239) to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide special immigrant status for certain United States international broadcasting employees. The Clerk read as follows: S. 3239 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SPECIAL IMMIGRANT STATUS FOR CERTAIN UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING EMPLOYEES. (a) Special Immigrant Category.--Section 101(a)(27) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)) is amended-- (1) by striking ``or'' at the end of subparagraph (K); (2) by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (L); and (3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph: ``(M) subject to the numerical limitations of section 203(b)(4), an immigrant who seeks to enter the United States to work as a broadcaster in the United States for the International Broadcasting Bureau of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, or for a grantee of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and the immigrant's accompanying spouse and children.''. (b) Numerical Limitations.-- (1) In general.--Section 203(b)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(4)) is amended by inserting before the period at the end the following: ``, and not more than 100 may be made available in any fiscal year to special immigrants, excluding spouses and children, who are described in section 101(a)(27)(M)''. (2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) shall apply to visas made available in any fiscal year beginning on or after October 1, 2000. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson- Lee) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas). General Leave Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 3239. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Pennsylvania? There was no objection. Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the bill before us is one that accommodates one of the best mechanisms we have as Americans of promoting liberty, justice and freedom across the world. I refer, of course, to the utilization of the international broadcasting services that we provide to citizens of other lands. Radio Free Europe, Radio Iraq, Radio Marti, Radio Free Asia, all of these are set for the purpose of teaching other peoples how [[Page H11700]] we function as a society and inspiring them to seek in their own countries the foundations of liberty and freedom which we take for granted and which we enjoy. The problem is that these broadcasting services have discovered that we need bilingual personnel to work in these broadcasting services. So we have to try to accommodate their coming to our country for that purpose. The State Department seems to have a natural hurdle to that, a block, if you will, to their just flowing into our country for these purposes. So we have to establish, and this legislation does it, a special kind of visa to permit 100 of these broadcasters, 100 per year to come into our country. They are going to be invaluable as they stream into our country. It will alleviate also, for their own personal freedom, the possibility of oppression if they are doing our work in their own countries but doing it from here. Broadcasting in their native language will get the message across, provide them with safeguards, and will foster the entire purpose of the international broadcasting services of which we are so proud. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas); and I, too, rise in support of this bill, S. 3239, which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, to provide special immigrant status for certain international broadcasting employees. {time} 2200 S. 3239 would establish a new immigrant visa category for international broadcasting employees which would be subject to numerical limitations. It would provide a maximum of 200 visas in the first year, which would deal with the current critical shortage of international broadcasters. Then it would provide a maximum of 100 visas annually for 3 successive years. Also, it would waive the labor certification requirement for the broadcasters who receive the visas. The people who work in the international broadcasting industry are highly skilled individuals. They must have journalistic skills. They must be fluent in a number of languages. Many times, Mr. Speaker, they are exchanging concepts of democracy and other governmental concepts to foreign countries where people are hungering after information, and so these people must have an in-depth knowledge of the people, history and cultures of other nations. Historically it has not been possible to find a sufficient number of people in the American workforce who have this combination of skills. All of us realize, however, that this is an important effort to ensure that we do have a diverse employee base and provide the kind of training to Americans that would provide them with the skills to be international broadcasters. Similar to our plea as we provided 195,000 H-1B visas, it is going to be important that we train an American workforce to ensure that they too can be part of the high technology industry. With respect to these particular visas, the availability of these visas would help to provide needed broadcasters for the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe, or Radio Liberty. This bill would provide the assistance that the international broadcasting industry needs to continue to provide essential news coverage around the world. Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to be able to stand here and support these special needs, as did I in our discussion on H1-B, even though we are looking to expand some additional opportunities for American workers and minorities. And I am very pleased to stand here today and support this legislation because I happen to believe in the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe. I think that we have found that it teaches democracy in a very effective way. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, I am certainly concerned and dismayed that my colleagues have not seen fit to support the Latino Immigration Fairness Act. That is part of the logjam that we are having in this Congress where we are not realizing that individuals who have been here working in the United States paying taxes and paying for their mortgages and sending their children to school and doing the work that America needs them do, whether it is trash pickup or whether it is waiting on them in restaurants, Mr. Speaker, we see fit in this Congress not to provide them with access to legalization. Just the other day, we had a debate where someone got on the floor and talked about who came to this country legally and who did not come to this country legally and talking about the Statue of Liberty. Well, Mr. Speaker, I would simply say to my colleagues that it is enormously important that, as we support these specialized non- immigrant visas for international broadcasters or high-tech industry, that we look to those common working men and women, the average working man and woman, who needs the Latino Immigration Fairness Act, and I would believe that this Congress needs to stand on the right side of this issue and stop throwing accusations against people who are hard working, who are immigrants, and who deserve to be here. What a tragedy to be able to vote this good bill today but yet we are not able to vote for a bill that would provide the fairness to these individuals. While I was in this debate on the floor of the House, Mr. Speaker, would you imagine that someone indicated that everyone who came to this country previous to these years came here legally. I did want to engage in a chastising debate. But frankly, Mr. Speaker, I did not come here legally. My ancestors came here slaves. And yet, we contributed a great deal to this country. We are very proud of the fact that we did contribute, and we are still contributing. These individuals came here out of persecution, prosecution and fear of their lives, but they came here under the encouragement of the United States Government. Just a few years ago, we gave the same kind of relief to Nicaraguans and Cubans and what happened was that we failed to do the right thing, the equitable thing and include people from Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti and Liberia. The only thing we are asking at this time, Mr. Speaker, is that we do the right thing. So I am very pleased to support S. 3239, but I believe that we are doing a great disservice and we are undermining the high status of this body by not passing the Latino Immigration Fairness Act. Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time. Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), a member of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs and a very distinguished Member of this body. Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me the time. I thank her for her great leadership on the Committee on the Judiciary on issues of fairness in relationship to our immigration policy, whether it is the H1-B visa and what the impact is on our engineers in our own country and recognition of the need for the H1-B but also for the need to educate and train our own workers, for her leadership on the immigration fairness issues, for equity for the 245(i), for parity, et cetera, in the fairness issues, and I associate myself fully with her remarks on those subjects again commending her for her tremendous leadership, her relentlessness on behalf of fairness in our immigration policy. I thank the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) and commend her for her leadership on this issue, which is the immigration fairness issues, as well as on the health disparity issue. Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas) for his leadership in assisting us with this legislation and his leadership on the Committee on the Judiciary and finally say that this bill should be passed by this body. These international broadcasters and the non- immigrant visa status that they are giving will help spread democracy around the world. As we do that, Mr. Speaker, I could not conclude without saying, likewise, [[Page H11701]] let us share democracy with those that are reaching for freedom and justice in this country who are simply seeking access to legalization. That is thousands and thousands of immigrants who have come here fleeing persecution. And this House now stands to deny them that right by not working to pass the Latino Immigration Fairness Act. I believe that we should do that, along with S. 3239. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, only for the purpose of asking that the record show that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) is the prime mover of this legislation and has been involved in its foundation for a long time, along with the member of the Senate, Jesse Helms, who has had an outstanding interest in the furtherance of this legislation. George Fishman, the staff member for the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) has been important in bringing this to the floor. Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation which will allow the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to receive a limited number of special immigrant visas, 100 per year, to allow broadcasters to work in the United States for the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia. This legislation would allow the BBG to utilize a uniform visa category for all of its broadcast entities; allow the family members of those serving U.S. interests to integrate into U.S. life; and provide protection through permanent residency to those broadcasters whose lives may be threatened because they provide accurate information about dictatorships and corrupt officials abroad. U.S. international broadcasters continue to reach societies which live under regimes that censor the information available to their citizens. Some, after serving U.S. international broadcasting, are unable to return to their countries of origin for fear of retaliation against themselves or their families. Certain employees of Radio Free Iraq have been threatened with their lives because of the work they do to empower citizens through the free flow of accurate information. U.S. international broadcasting remains a vital part of our international effort to encourage democracy-building abroad. Its successes precede and follow the Cold War. For example, the most recent BBG survey showed that RFE/RL was the number-one radio station among Serbians during the recent attempt to topple Slobodan Milosevic. Foreign populations rely on broadcasting sponsored by the U.S. as a lifeline in a crisis. Recognizing this, we need to provide the means for the BBG to recruit, retain, and protect the talented individuals it employs. Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shimkus). The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas) that the House suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill, S. 3239. The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor thereof) the rules were suspended and the Senate bill was passed. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. ____________________

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