Legislation to bar new employment contracts with H1-B visa holders from certain countries made its way through an Iowa Senate subcommittee and the chamber’s workforce committee Wednesday with concerns from some about legal repercussions.
House File 2513, passed out of the House with a 68-27 vote last week, would bar state universities from entering into employment contracts with “citizens of federally designated foreign adversaries and state sponsors of terrorism” holding an H-1B visa, the bill stated, including Syria, China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela.
State universities and community colleges are registered undecided on the bill, lobbyists told subcommittee members Wednesday morning, but have concerns about its potential to cause lawsuits. Jillian Carlson, state relations officer for the Iowa Board of Regents, said a “very small percentage” of the nearly 30,000 people employed by universities hold H1-B visas – between 120 and 130 people.
“We do have concerns that this would open us up to lawsuits due to conflict with both state and federal laws on discrimination based on national origin,” Carlson said.
Dennis Tibben, lobbyist for State Shield Action, which he described as a “public policy group focused on safeguarding the states against national security threats,” called the legislation a “common sense approach” to ensuring the sensitive information being used and produced by U.S. higher education institutions is safe and isn’t exposed to “potentially hostile” people.
Sen. Mike Pike, R-Des Moines, chaired the subcommittee and was joined by Sen. Thomas Townsend, D-Dubuque, and Sen. Adrian Dickey, R-Packwood. Both Pike and Dickey expressed concerns with the number of people Carlson mentioned, with Pike saying it only takes “a few bad actors” to bring the problem this bill is seeking to solve into the forefront.
“Those numbers are concerning to me as to, is this what’s in the best interest, not only for our students, but also for our country, (to) have individuals here that … may not be loyal to America in the same manner that we all are,” Dickey said.
Multiple Dubuque organizations have registered against the legislation, Townsend said, added he hasn’t had the time to speak with them so he will need to do more research before he supports the legislation.
Townsend also said the bill allows for a “discriminative practice” to not allow state universities to hire people who are in the country legally and have already been vetted to live and work here. It could open up the universities and the board of regents to lawsuits for discrimination of country of origin, he said.
Pike said during committee discussion that a vote against the legislation is a vote for U.S. adversaries, “including those we’re actively engaged in conflict with who are killing our troops,” to maintain their “free pass” to steal intellectual property and opportunities from U.S. citizens.
“I urge a yes vote on this bill that sends a message that it is not acceptable to hire professors whose main objective may be how they can best aid terrorism or foreign adversaries,” Pike said.
The legislation will move to the Iowa Senate debate calendar.