WASHINGTON â Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is pursuing closed-door negotiations with other key senators to ease requirements that high-tech companies first offer jobs to Americans before hiring overseas workers.
The provision is one of several industry-friendly amendments Hatch has proposed to the leading immigration bill in the Senate. In its current form, the bill would require companies to first extend job offers to qualified U.S. workers in fields such as programming and engineering before hiring foreign workers on temporary H-1B visas.
The bill also would give the Labor Department the power to review and challenge companies' hiring decisions for up to two years after they are made.
The technology industry opposes that measure as too intrusive and is seeking to change provisions in the bill that require companies to promise to not lay off an American worker within 90 days of hiring a foreign worker.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week, Hatch said he was working with other senators to revise some of those requirements in the bill drafted by the "Gang of Eight" Republican and Democratic senators who worked on the measure.
"There's a whole high-tech world that's getting up in arms if we don't do this right," Hatch said. "They alone could make this bill very difficult to pass."
The Judiciary Committee could start voting on Hatch's proposals as early as Thursday.
Hatch is a member of the committee, which has jurisdiction over the bill. New York Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a Gang of Eight member who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, has agreed to work with Hatch.
The tech industry has increasingly flexed its political muscle to help shape the bill. An advocacy group led by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has begun advertising to support the immigration overhaul.
Proponents of the immigration measure view Hatch as a key player as they work to gain more Republican support for the measure. Hatch has not said whether he will vote for the overall bill, but made it clear that resolving the technology industry's concerns is a top priority for him.
Hatch's record indicates he is open to changes in the immigration system. More than a decade ago, he sponsored an early version of the DREAM Act, a bill that would have made it possible for the children of undocumented immigrants to attain permanent residency.
"Sen. Hatch has a long history of leadership on high-tech issues," said Dan Turrentine of TechNet, a leading technology trade group. "His interest in immigration and effort to ensure the workability of well-intentioned high-skilled reforms proposed by the Gang of Eight makes him a natural to be at the center of negotiations as he seeks to strengthen the bill and broaden support."
The tech industry already has made big gains in the bill, which dramatically increases the number of available H-1B visas. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected an effort from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to strike a pro-industry provision that allows U.S. companies to count H-1B visa holders who have applied for green cards as part of their U.S. workforce.
The bill imposes higher fees and more regulation for companies that rely on foreign guest workers for 15% or more of their workforce.