USA TODAY: 08/13/98- Updated 12:24 PM ET

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             Try harder to hire U.S. tech workers 

             By DeWayne Wickham 

             The deal is signed and sealed, but not yet delivered. 

             Republican leaders in the House and Senate reached an agreement late
             last month on the terms of a bill that will sharply increase the number of
             skilled foreigners who are allowed to work in this country. 

             Under the deal, the annual limit for these workers - most of whom
             come from India and China - will rise from the current level of 65,000
             new workers to 115,000 in three years. 

             This 77% increase is intended to benefit high-tech computer firms that
             have lobbied Republican lawmakers for permission to import more and
             more foreign workers into the country. 

             This is needed, the bill's supporters say, because the computer industry
             has 346,000 unfilled jobs for engineers, analysts and programmers -
             positions that the American workforce cannot fill. 

             Opponents of the legislation, which is expected to be voted on in early
             September, say it will take jobs away from Americans and hold down
             salaries in the computer industry by bringing in large numbers of
             foreigners who are willing to work for less. 

             Seek Americans first 

             To address these concerns, Rep. Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican
             who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, won adoption of language
             that requires some companies that hire these foreign workers to certify
             that they first tried to fill the positions with Americans. This provision
             will not apply to large companies where the percentage of foreign
             workers - though maybe not the actual number - is a small part of the
             business workforce. 

             This compromise doesn't go far enough. 

             While computer industry advocates talk of a labor shortage, critics of
             the plan to expand the number of visas offered skilled foreigners argue
             that this is a manufactured crisis. To prove it, they point to this statistic:
             The unemployment rate for computer programmers over 50 years old is
             17%. These are generally the most experienced and skilled
             programmers, who can command higher salaries than foreign workers. 

             If that's right, the bill brokered by Republican congressional leaders will
             aid and abet a practice of age discrimination within an industry that is
             known to have flouted at least one other anti-discrimination law. 

             Affirmative-action rules violated 

             According to a report earlier this year in the San Francisco Chronicle,
             more than a dozen computer firms in California's Silicon Valley violated
             federal affirmative-action rules in the past seven years. In almost every
             case the offending company was cited by the Department of Labor for
             not making a "good faith effort" to hire Hispanic and black workers. 

             It's hard to take seriously the computer industry's claim of a labor
             shortage necessitating the importation of tens of thousands of foreign
             workers when experienced, older Americans have such a high
             unemployment rate, and very little effort is made to recruit minorities. 

             To remain the world's technological leader, this nation needs a
             computer industry whose workers are well educated and highly trained.
             But in achieving this, we cannot allow high-tech companies to engage in
             age and race discrimination. 

             It's not enough to simply require computer firms to certify that they
             haven't bypassed qualified Americans to hire cheap labor from abroad.
             Tough financial and criminal penalties must be imposed on those
             companies that lie about making a serious effort to fill job vacancies
             with U.S. workers before turning to foreigners. Without a rock-solid
             guarantee to punish those businesses that lie about such an effort, the
             bill to increase the number of foreign workers allowed into this country
             each year should be defeated in Congress or vetoed by the president. 

             Some Republicans see their support of this legislation as a chance to cut
             into the backing Democrats have been getting from the high-tech
             industry. They would be better served by building upon Smith's
             well-intended, but insufficient, efforts to protect the rights of U.S.
             workers. 

             If America's high-tech industry put as much effort into employing older,
             experienced workers - and training young minorities - as it has in its
             drive to hire more foreigners, it would do itself and the nation a great
             service. 

             DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.