Bravo to Bill Gates
Friday, March 14, 2008 at 5:08PM 
A few weeks ago Bill Gates joined Linked[in]. It is often the network’s practice when a high profile member joins, to invite them to post a “featured question” on the site’s Q&A page. Mr. Gates did so by asking:
How can we do more to encourage young people to pursue careers in science and technology?
Before the question was closed, it received 3567 answers. Unfortunately, Bill did not mark a best answer (or even a list of good answers). My reply, which appears here (the 18th answer on page 90), emphasized that meeting our job market demand for scientist and engineers could not be met with education alone, but only by also opening up citizenship to foreign born students receiving college degrees in American Universities. My reply began:
With only 5% of the world’s population, all our talent cannot be homegrown. We desperately need to open our doors to more (I’d say “unlimited”) H-1B visas. With a shortage of engineering and scientific degrees going to American students, our Universities give more technical degrees to foreign students than domestic… yet when their student visas expire we effectively throw them out of our country. A great many of them want to stay here, and yet after giving them our most precious intellectual property, we basically give them the boot. We should be passing out citizenship at graduation ceremonies. Foreign students who earn a degree at a U.S. University in a field where America has a shortage of talent should be granted immediate and automatic citizenship. Anything less is both foolish and shameful. —bold emphasis added.
On March 12th, Bill Gates gave an address before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, on the topic of Competitiveness and Innovation. This address marked the committee’s 50th Anniversary.
Bill Gates’ address to Congress:
Most of the committee members were respectful and receptive to Mr. Gates’ message. Representative Ralph Hall of Texas, district 4 gave a particularly warm introductory speech. There was one quite noteworthy exception. Dana Rohrabacher, California representative, district 46, who went on a protectionist/isolationist rant, felt that if Microsoft couldn’t hire the “A students” from abroad, they should just hire “B and C students” that were American born. He felt it was Microsoft’s responsibility to create jobs for these workers too. He even made the argument that, by giving H-1B visas to foreign engineers, that we would unfairly damage the labor needs of the recipient’s home country (you can’t make this stuff up!). After this bone-head (can I say that? …yes, of course I can. It’s my blog.) went beyond his alloted time, the chair of the committee asked him to wrap it up. Incensed by the perceived insult, Mr. Rohrabacher blathered, “You know, I’ve got a, uh, I’m working at, uh, I’m one of the guys who helped Kosovo become independent, I’m on the Foreign Relations Committee…” before he was eventually shut up. California, is this guy really the best you can find to represent you?
There is a very foolish and shortsighted sentiment that H-1B visas drive down wages and/or cause US citizens to loose jobs to foreign workers. With a shortage of scientific and engineering candidates, without more (many more) H-1B visa recipients, these jobs do not then go to natural born American citizens, but rather simply go unfilled. And that highly sought candidate will instead be employed by a foreign competitor.
Bill’s address was succinct but not thin, and his follow-up answers were well informed. He covered everything from the role of philanthropy in improving education, new educational opportunities offered by the internet, US competitiveness as compared to Europe and Asia, US investment in research and development, his strong support for the America Competes Act, teaching programs that have been successful both inside and outside the US, and what effect this has had on American competitiveness and businesses ability to meet their hiring needs. It was however, the issue of H-1B visas that captured the media. Below I have pulled all of Bill’s quotes related to the subject from the more than 2 hours of footage, sans any media spin (only 9 minutes of which was his actual Congressional address).
At time marker 5:25, citing research (PDF) Mr. Gates makes the case that H-1B visas actually create more jobs here in the United States:
Today our university computer science and engineering programs include large numbers of foreign students. In fact, the Science and Engineering Indicators Report showed that 59 percent of doctoral degrees and 43 percent of all higher-ed degrees in engineering and computer science are awarded to temporary residence. But our current immigration policies make it increasingly difficult for these students to remain in the United States. At the time when talent is the key to economic success, it makes no sense to educate people in our Universities, often subsidized by US tax payers and then insist that they return home. US innovation has always been based in part on the contributions of foreign born scientist and researchers. For example, a recent survey, uh, conducted by several universities, showed that between 1999 and 2005, firms with at least one foreign born founder created 450,000 new US jobs. Moreover, as a recent study shows– for every H-1B holder that technology companies hire, five additional jobs are created around that person. But as you know our immigration system makes it very difficult for US firms to hire highly skilled foreign workers.
At time marker 7:51 he added:
I want to emphasize that, to address the shortage of scientist and engineers, we must do both– reform our education system and our immigration policies.
While the video above only contains Bill Gates’ address, and not the follow-up questions by members of the house which, as I point out, lasted much longer than the address itself, I have included a couple of noteworthy highlights. The majority of the committee’s members were sympathetic to Mr. Gates position, Mr. Rohrabacher bizarre comments above being the only exception.
Later, in response to a question by Mr. Rothman, representative for New Jersey, district 9, at time marker 10:47, Mr. Gates further made the point:
I’d also suggest that, if someone’s educated in a US University that, because of the research funding that comes out of the government, you know, you’ve basically subsidized that education, I think there should be a direct path to permanent residency.
In another exchange with the committee regarding the stature of American Universities, Mr. Gates has this to add (11:04):
The very top engineers, the US Universities still have a strong position, but as I’ve said, the majority of the students in the computer science department are foreign born. And so we educate them. We provide the world’s very best education, and the… the research funding and various things are, a… a major factor there. And then those are the students who, uh, are not allowed to stay and, and work in the country because of the limits we have.
I would like to commend Bill Gates for speaking sense in the face of all the ill-founded isolationism being advocated by some false populist shills for the labor union special interests. The tech sector is the future of the American economy, and of the world. If America is to continue to prosper, we must increase our number of scientist, engineers and mathematicians. Even if all American college graduates became engineers, we would still have a shortage. This has more to do with birthrates than anything else. The only way to close this gap is through immigration, and the low hanging fruit are those foreigners who have already been educated in our system. They are already here, they want to stay here, and when we force them to leave, they will not leave the labor market, they will simply goto work in a foreign competitor economy, taking American intellectual capital with them as we throw them out.
I started off writing a technology story, and here I am, stuck in politics again.
RELATED LINKS:
Bill Gates’ Address in the C-Span Archives
Bill Gates’ full hearing before the Committee on Science and Technology, including pre-address comments by committee members, as well as a post address question and answer with Bill Gates, can be viewed in full at C-Span’s online archives. Available formats include both a Flash Movie and a Windows Media file (total run time is just over two hours). It can also be ordered on DVD.
Committee on Science and Technology, 50th Anniversary Address
Additionally, the address can be viewed in full from the United States House of Representatives’ website as a Real Media file.
Bill Gates unabridged written testimony as PDF
Due to time constraints, Mr. Gates agreed to give an abridged version of his address. His full testimony was entered into the record in writing, and can be downloaded in PDF form.
Microsoft website— Bill Gates, transcript from committee address
The full transcript of Bill Gates address before the Congressional committee, including all follow-up questions.
Bill Gates’ Speeches— Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Transcripts of other speeches by Bill Gates, in the archives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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