President Donald Trump is mandating federal agencies pay more attention to the buy-American rules on the books. The president is expected to sign an executive order April 18 requiring agencies to conduct a top-to-bottom assessment of the procurement rules and get rid of any loopholes that would give foreign products an advantage over American ones.

The Buy American, Hire American order is part of Trump’s campaign promise to promote American workers and American manufacturing.

The Hire American part of the executive order requires agencies to review and administratively strengthen the rules around work visas such as H-1B.

“The buy-and-hire rules have been diluted over time,” said a senior administration official during a briefing on April 17. “The buy-America waiver and exemption process has resulted in lost job opportunities for American workers, and the hire-American visa and labor policies have been unenforced or rendered inoperative.”

Under the Buy American section of the order, the White House is taking on three separate legislative provisions — the Berry Amendment, the 1994 provision in the Defense Authorization Act, the 1933 Buy American Act and the Buy America provisions of the Recovery Act — and addressing what senior administration officials say are much-needed fortifications.

“The EO ushers in a more muscular buy-American policy. We are maximizing made in America,” the official said. “Every agency will conduct a top-to-bottom assessment and root out every buy-American loophole. Then, the Commerce Secretary will coordinate efforts and advise how to close those loopholes.”

The official said the executive order also will require Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative to look at how the government issues waivers to buy American in free-trade agreements.

“If it turns out America is a net loser because of a free-trade agreement, and there are agreements with 60 countries, they may be renegotiated,” the official said.

The official outlined the four main points of the order:
• Directs every agency to monitor, enforce and comply with buy-American laws. The official said this is the Trump administration’s highest priority when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars.

 “Agencies will be held strictly accountable for any failures,” the official said. “Each will conduct a top-to-bottom review of buy-American rules, including the use of waivers and exemptions, and provide recommendations to strengthen buy-American.” The official said recommendations are due to the president in 220 days.
• Require agencies to use waivers and exemptions to buy-American judiciously, and mandates that only the head of an agency can issue a waiver. Agencies also should consider when looking at bids whether a foreign source of products has been dumped or otherwise subsidized to create an unfair low bid.
• The government will enforce buy-American rules. The official said there is some evidence that shows the role of free-trade agreements in weakening the buy-American laws. “Previous administrations have waived buy-American rights with trade deals,” the official said. “Through these deals, foreign companies are treated just like Americans in the government procurement process. The idea was America would pick up as much or more in foreign government markets, but there is compelling evidence, such as a February 2017 report from the Government Accountability Office, that suggests the U.S. may not be getting a fair share of the foreign government procurement market through fair trade agreements.” In the report, GAO found as of 2010, the most recent data available, the U.S. opened up $837 billion to foreign companies, which was five times more than the next five countries — the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Norway and Canada — opened up to U.S. firms. The official said the order calls for the Commerce Secretary and the Trade Representative to consider renegotiating these trade agreements if further analysis shows the U.S. isn’t getting a fair deal.

The hire-American part of the order would direct the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and State to propose new rules to prevent immigration fraud and abuse. Those departments would also be asked to offer changes so that H-1B visas are awarded to the “most-skilled or highest-paid applicants.”

The White House said the program is currently undercutting American workers by bringing in cheaper labor and said some tech companies are using it to hire large numbers of workers and drive down wages.

Congress is considering several bills to overhaul the visa program. One, introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), would require companies seeking H-1B visas to first make a good-faith effort to hire Americans, a requirement many companies can dodge under the current system; give the Labor Department more power to investigate and sanction H-1B abuses; and give “the best and brightest” foreign students studying in the U.S. priority in getting H-1B visas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>Story highlights The order looks to bolster protections for certain American-made goods

Trump traveled to Wisconsin Tuesday

Kenosha, Wisconsin (CNN) President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing federal agencies to implement the "Buy American, Hire American" rhetoric of his campaign.

"The buy and hire American order I'm about to sign will protect workers and students like you," Trump told a crowd of technical students and manufacturing employees at the headquarters of Snap-On Tools, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer. "It's America first, you better believe it. It's time. It's time, right?"

The order, which Trump signed after delivering his remarks, looks to bolster protections for certain American-made goods and calls for a review of the H-1B visa program for skilled workers, with the goal of reforming the program, senior administration officials said.

Trump said the order would "aggressively promote and use American-made goods and to ensure that American labor is hired to do the job."

Lauding American "grit" and "craftsmanship," Trump once again embraced the populist rhetoric that fueled his campaign during his remarks Tuesday, decrying the World Trade Organization as "another one of our disasters" and also calling the NAFTA free trade deal a "complete and total disaster."

Read More</s>In a bid to court working class voters, Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to revamp a temporary visa programme used to bring foreign workers to fill jobs in the US.

The president will use a visit to a manufacturing company in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a crucial state he snatched from Hillary Clinton in the election, to promote his latest “Buy America Hire America” offensive.

This includes an attempt to redress alleged abuses in the H-1B visas, which are used largely by the tech industry, and on which has Trump shifted position several times during the election campaign.

H-1B visas admit 65,000 workers and another 20,000 graduate student workers each year. Most of the visas are awarded to outsourcing firms, which critics say exploit loopholes to fill lower-level IT jobs with foreign workers, often at lower pay. The White House intends “a total transformation” of the programme from a lottery to a merit-based system, a senior administration official said.

Trump’s executive order will call on government departments to introduce reforms to ensure that H-1B visas are awarded to the “most skilled or highest paid applicants”, the official told reporters.



“Right now H-1B visas are awarded by random lottery and many of you will be surprised to know that about 80% of H-1B workers are paid less than the median wage in their fields. Only 5% to 6%, depending on the year, of H-1B workers command the highest wage tier recognised by the Department of Labor.”

The official added: “The result is that workers are often brought in well below market rates to replace American workers, violating the principle of the programme, which is supposed to be a means for bringing in skilled labour. Instead, you’re a lot of times bringing in workers that are less skilled and lower paid than the workers they’re replacing.”

Perhaps the most notorious case cited during the campaign was at the Walt Disney Company in Florida, where American technology workers claimed they were laid off and forced to train foreign replacements. A judge dismissed a lawsuit that accused Disney of conspiring with outsourcing companies to violate visa laws.

The senior administration official said: “If you change that current system that awards visas randomly, without regard for skill or wage, to a skills-based awarding, it makes it extremely difficult to use the visa to replace or undercut American workers ... It’s a very elegant way of solving very systemic problems in the H-1B guest worker visa.”

He added: “I could foresee scenarios, which I won’t get into now, where you just have a whole different way of looking at immigration. This is a transitional step to get towards a more skills-based and merit-based immigration system.”

The executive order will also call for the “strict enforcement” of laws governing entry to the US of labour from overseas, with a view to creating higher wages and employment rates for US workers.



The order will also call on government departments to “take prompt action to crack down on fraud and abuse” in the immigration system, a senior administration official said.

There was a tense moment at Monday’s off-camera briefing when a reporter asked about Trump’s own hiring of temporary foreign guest workers at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and other Trump properties. The official replied: “I think it’s important to understand that the job of the president of the United States is to set policy for federal government so any questions about a private company’s practices is not something I’m even able to speak to or answer.

“But I think during the campaign the president addressed this at length. I’m frankly surprised that you didn’t brief yourself before coming here ... I don’t know if you’re asking because you don’t know or you’re pretending you don’t know.”

Reforming the distribution of H-1B visas was reportedly discussed during the presidential transition with chief executives of tech companies at Trump Tower in New York. Attorney general Jeff Sessions has been a long-time critic.</s>President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Jan. 27, 2017. (DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jette Carr)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday will sign an executive order directing federal agencies to recommend changes to a temporary visa program used to bring foreign workers to the United States to fill high-skilled jobs.

Two senior Trump administration officials who briefed reporters at the White House said Trump will also use the “buy American and hire American” order to seek changes in government procurement practices to increase the purchase of American products in federal contracts.

Trump is to sign the order when he visits the world headquarters of Snap-On Inc, a tool manufacturer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The order is an attempt by Trump to carry out his “America First” campaign pledges to reform U.S. immigration policies and encourage purchases of American products. As he nears the 100-day benchmark of his presidency, Trump has no major legislative achievements to tout but has used executive orders to seek regulatory changes to help the U.S. economy.

The order he will sign on Tuesday will call for “the strict enforcement of all laws governing entry into the United States of labor from abroad for the stated purpose of creating higher wages and higher employment rates for workers in the United States,” one of the senior officials said.

It will call on the departments of Labor, Justice, Homeland Security and State to take action to crack down on what the official called “fraud and abuse” in the U.S. immigration system to protect American workers.

The order will call on those four federal departments to propose reforms to ensure H-1B visas are awarded to the most skilled or highest paid applicant.

H-1B visas are intended for foreign nationals in “specialty” occupations that generally require higher education, which according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) includes, but is not limited to, scientists, engineers or computer programmers. The government uses a lottery to award 65,000 visas every year and randomly distributes another 20,000 to graduate student workers.

The number of applications for H-1B visas fell to 199,000 this year from 236,000 in 2016, according U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Companies say they use visas to recruit top talent. More than 15 percent of Facebook Inc’s U.S. employees in 2016 used a temporary work visa, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. Labor Department filings.

But a majority of the visas are awarded to outsourcing firms, sparking criticism by skeptics who say those firms use the visas to fill lower-level information technology jobs. Critics also say the lottery system benefits outsourcing firms that flood the system with mass applications.

The senior official said the end result of how the system currently works is that foreign workers are often brought in at less pay to replace American workers, “violating the principle of the program.”

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California and Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren of California were not immediately available to comment.

Facebook, Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc were also not immediately available after normal business hours.

The order also asks federal agencies to look at how to get rid of loopholes in the government procurement process.

Specifically, the review will take into account whether waivers in free-trade agreements are leading to unfair trade by allowing foreign companies to undercut American companies in the global government procurement market.

“If it turns out America is a net loser because of those free-trade agreement waivers, which apply to almost 60 countries, these waivers may be promptly renegotiated or revoked,” the second official said.</s>WASHINGTON: Acting on his 'Buy American, Hire American' pledge, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order for tightening the rules of the H-1B visa programme, the most sought-after by Indian IT firms and professionals, to stop "visa abuses". 

 

 Trump signed the order that calls for tightening the rules of the programme at the Kenosha, Wisconsin, headquarters of tool maker Snap-on Inc yesterday.



 "Right now, widespread abuse in our immigration system is allowing American workers of all backgrounds to be replaced by workers brought in from other countries to fill the same job for, sometimes, less pay. This will stop," Trump told an enthusiastic audience in Wisconsin before signing the order. 

 

 He said the order sets in motion the first steps to initiate "long-overdue" reforms to end "visa abuses". 

 

 "Right now, H-1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery, and that's wrong. Instead, they should be given to the most skilled and highest-paid applicants, and they should never, ever be used to replace Americans," the US President asserted. 

 

 "No one can compete with American workers when they're given a fair and level playing field, which has not happened for decades," he said. 

 

 Trump said his administration is going to enforce 'Hire American' rules that are designed to protect jobs and wages of workers in the United States. 

 

 "We believe jobs must be offered to American workers first. Does that make sense?" he said. 

 

 The executive order also declares that American projects should be made with American goods. 

 

 "No longer are we going to allow foreign countries to cheat our producers and our workers out of federal contracts. Everyone in my administration will be expected to enforce every last 'Buy American' provision on behalf of the American worker, and we are going to investigate every single trade deal that undermines these provisions," he said. 

 

 According to the executive order signed by Trump, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labour, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall suggest reforms to help ensure that H-1B visas are awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid petition beneficiaries. 

 

 In a statement, the White House said H-1B visas are supposed to bring the highest skilled and paid labour to the United States. 

 

 But according to studies, 80 per cent of the approved applications were for the two lowest wage levels allowed. 

 

 "Currently, companies routinely abuse the H-1B visa programme by replacing American workers with lower paid foreign workers," it said. 

 

 Reforming the H-1B visa system was one of the major election promises of Trump. As per several US reports, a majority of the H-1B visas every year are grabbed by Indian IT professionals. 

 

 India accounts for the highest pool of qualified IT professionals, whose services go a long way in making American companies globally competitive. 

 

 As mandated by the Congress, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) every year issues 65,000 H-1B visas and another 20,000 to those applicants having masters and higher degrees from a US educational institution. 

 

 This month USCIS received 199,000 H-1B visa petitions and as a result the federal agency had to resort to a computerised draw of lots to decide the fate of successful applicant. 

 

 Meanwhile, some US lawmakers said the executive order signed by Trump calling for a review of H-1B visas was too little and too late. 

 

 "We already know H-1B visa abuse hurts American workers. Simply reviewing the programme is too little, too late," Senator Dick Durbin said. 

 

 US lawmakers have already tabled more than half a dozen legislations in the Congress with specific proposals to reform and improve the H-1B visas systems. Many of those proposals, as per industry body Nasscom, are discriminatory and are targeted towards Indian IT companies. 

 

 The US tech industry and corporate sector, however, has welcomed the "much-needed" review of the H-1B visa programme and expressed confidence that it would help them bring in the best and the brightest from across the world.



 Read Also:

 Trump To Sign Executive Order On Reform Of H-1B Visa System

 Trump Nominates 2 Indian-Americans For Key Positions</s>United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order introducing changes to the H-1B temporary visa scheme used by companies to hire foreigners for high-skilled jobs. The businessman-turned politician signed the order, which is being dubbed the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order, as he visited the global headquarters of tool manufacturing firm Snap-On Inc in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The new order asks the four federal departments of labour, justice, homeland security and state to crack down on alleged “fraud and abuse” in the immigration system in order to protect American workers. It urges these departments to propose reforms to ensure H-1B visas are awarded to the most skilled or highest paid applicant, reported Reuters.

“We’re going to defend our workers, protect our jobs and finally put America first,” the US president said. Trump also promised to either replace or modify the current lottery-based selection process for H-1B visas. “Right now, H-1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery and that’s wrong,” he added.

Trump had promised his voters that he would overhaul the H-1B visa system to provide more jobs to Americans, whom he said were losing employment opportunities to “foreigners”. The new order poses particular problems for India, which sends the maximum H-1B workers to the US. It makes it difficult for entry-level computer programmers to get the work permit.

US authorities will also conduct site visits to check on employers who hire H-1B visa holders over Americans. Checks will be carried out in cases where the immigration department cannot validate the employer’s basic business information through available data. Employers petitioning for H-1B workers who work off-site will also be under the lens, according to the new rules.

Trump has also used his “buy American and hire American” premise to bring in changes in government procurement practices, reported The Guardian. Henceforth, officials will review waivers in free-trade agreements to check if it is leading to unfair trade. “If it turns out America is a net loser because of those free-trade agreement waivers, which apply to almost 60 countries, these waivers may be promptly renegotiated or revoked,” an official told Reuters.

The order comes at a time when the number of applications for H-1B work visas has declined for the first time in five years. On Tuesday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it had received 1.99 lakh H-1B petitions for 2018 within five days of opening the visa applications on April 3. The last time it was below 2 lakh was in 2014, though even in that year, the number of applications grew from 2013. In 2016, the USCIS had received 236,000 applications. The number of applications received for the H-1B visas had been increasing since 2013.

In March, the US had suspended the premium processing option for H-1B visas, which allowed companies to bring in highly skilled workers in a few weeks, rather than several months, if they paid an additional amount. A large number of technology companies, among other industries, relied on premium processing to bring in skilled engineers to the US.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump heads to the politically important state of Wisconsin Tuesday to sign an order aimed at curbing abuses in a visa program used by technology companies that rely on high-skilled foreign workers.

The order, dubbed "Buy American, Hire American," marks a return to the populism Trump seemed to all but abandon with a series of recent reversals on economic policies.

Trump will sign the directive at the headquarters of tool manufacturer Snap-on Inc. in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a state he narrowly carried in November on the strength of support from white, working class voters. But Trump is currently facing a 41 percent approval in the state.

Trump is targeting the H-1B visa program, which the White House says undercuts American workers by bringing in large numbers of cheaper, foreign workers, driving down wages.

The tech industry has argued that the H-1B program is needed because it encourages students to stay in the U.S. after getting degrees in high-tech specialties — and they can't always find enough American workers with the skills they need.

The order would direct U.S. agencies to propose rules to prevent immigration fraud and abuse in the program. They would also be asked to offer changes so that H-1B visas are awarded to the "most-skilled or highest-paid applicants," said administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity despite the president's frequent criticism of the use of anonymous sources.

The officials said the order also seeks to strengthen requirements that American-made products be used in certain federal construction projects, as well as in various federal transportation grant-funded projects. The commerce secretary will review how to close loopholes in existing rules and provide recommendations to the president.

The order specifically asks the secretary to review waivers of these rules in free-trade agreements. The waivers could be renegotiated or revoked if they are not benefiting the United States.

Trump's visit to Wisconsin takes him to the congressional district of House Speaker Paul Ryan, who won't be joining the president because he's on a congressional trip visiting NATO countries.

Trump campaigned on populist promises to stand up to China, which he claimed was manipulating its currency and stealing American jobs, and to eliminate the Export-Import bank, which he billed as wasteful subsidy. In a series of interviews last week, Trump reversed himself on both positions

And while he has long pledged to support American goods and workers, his own business record is mixed. Many Trump-branded products, like clothing, are made overseas. And his businesses have hired foreign workers, including at his Palm Beach club Mar-a-Lago.

During his campaign, Trump said at one point that he supported high-skilled visas, then opposed them. At one debate, he said: "It's very bad for our workers and it's unfair for our workers. And we should end it."

The officials said potential changes could be administrative or legislative and could include higher fees for the visas, changing the wage scale for the program or other initiatives.

Critics say the program has been hijacked by staffing companies that use the visas to recruit foreigners — often from India — who will work for less than Americans. The staffing companies then sell their services to corporate clients who use them to outsource tech work.

Employers, such as Walt Disney World and the University of California in San Francisco, have laid off tech employees and replaced them with H-1B visa holders. The U.S. workers are sometimes asked to train their replacements to qualify for severance packages.

Ronil Hira, a professor in public policy at Howard University and a critic of the H-1B program, said Trump's planned order is "better than nothing." But he added, "It's not as aggressive as it needs to be."

Trump has traveled to promote his agenda less than his recent predecessors. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump wanted to visit "a company that builds American-made tools with American workers."

Trump carried Wisconsin in November by nearly 23,000 votes — less than 1 percentage point — making him the first Republican to win the state since 1984. He campaigned on the promise of returning manufacturing jobs that have been lost in Upper Midwest states.

Snap-on makes hand and power tools, diagnostics software, information and management systems, and shop equipment for use in various industries, including agriculture, the military and aviation. It has eight manufacturing sites in North America and employs about 11,000 people worldwide.</s>KENOSHA, Wis., April 18 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday will order federal agencies to look at tightening a temporary visa program used to bring high-skilled foreign workers to the United States, as he tries to carry out his campaign pledges to put "America First."

Trump will sign an executive order on enforcing and reviewing the H-1B visa, popular in the technology industry, on a visit to the headquarters of Snap-On Inc, a tool manufacturer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, senior administration officials said.

He will also use what the White House called the "Buy American and Hire American" order to seek changes in government procurement that would boost purchases of American products in federal contracts, with one aim being to help U.S. steelmakers.

The moves will show Trump once again using his power to issue executive orders to try to fulfill promises he made last year in his election campaign, in this case to reform U.S. immigration policies and encourage purchases of American products.

Senior officials gave few details on implementation of the order but Trump aides have expressed concern that most H-1B visas are awarded for lower-paid jobs at outsourcing firms, many based in India, which they say takes work away from Americans.

They seek a more merit-based way to give the visas to highly skilled workers.

Companies that specialize in applying for H-1B visas on behalf of foreign workers, then connecting those workers with U.S. employers, include Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Cognizant Tech Solutions Corp and Infosys Ltd .

Their business models could be affected by any changes to the H-1B system.

None of the three companies immediately responded to a request for comment.

Infosys, India's No. 2 IT services firm, has said it is ramping up work on on-site development centers in the United States to train local talent in an effort to address the visa regulation changes under consideration.

It warned last week that onerous changes to U.S. visa rules could affect its earnings.

As he nears the 100-day benchmark of his presidency, Trump still has no major legislative achievements. With his attempts to overhaul healthcare and tax law not bearing fruit so far in a Congress controlled by his fellow Republicans, Trump has leaned heavily on executive orders to seek changes to the U.S. economy.

The venue for Trump's visit on Tuesday is a nod to his voter base in the manufacturing centers of the American heartland. Wisconsin unexpectedly voted for the Republican last year, partly due to his promises to bring back industrial jobs.

His order will call for "strict enforcement of all laws governing entry into the United States of labor from abroad for the stated purpose of creating higher wages and higher employment rates for workers in the United States," a senior official said.

It will call on the departments of Labor, Justice, Homeland Security and State to crack down on what the official called "fraud and abuse" in the U.S. immigration system, in order to protect American workers.

Instead of directly ordering a change to the H-1B visa program, Trump is taking a more cautious route that will likely take some time to produce actual results. He will ask those federal departments to propose reforms to ensure those visas are awarded to the most skilled or highest paid applicant.

H-1B visas are intended for foreign nationals in occupations that generally require higher education, including science, engineering or computer programming. The government uses a lottery to award 65,000 visas every year and randomly distributes another 20,000 to graduate student workers.

More than 15 percent of Facebook Inc's U.S. employees in 2016 used a temporary work visa, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. Labor Department filings.

Critics say the lottery benefits outsourcing firms that flood the system with mass applications.

The senior official said that under the current system foreign workers are often brought in at less pay to replace American workers, "violating the principle of the program."

Indian nationals are by far the largest group of recipients of the H-1B visas issued each year to new applicants.

NASSCOM, the Indian IT service industry's main lobby group, said it supports efforts to root out any abuses occurring in the H-1B system, but said the idea that H-1B visa holders are cheap labor is inaccurate.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Washington in February to be open minded on admitting skilled Indian workers.

Before Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, his transition team discussed the possibility of scrapping the H-1B lottery and replacing it with a system to favor visa petitions for jobs that pay the highest salaries, in an effort to curb visas given to lower skilled tech workers.

"We hope the goal of President Trump´s executive order on the H-1B program is 'mend it, don´t end it,'" Robert Atkinson, president of the tech industry think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

But he added that "some of the ideas that have been suggested, such as requiring applicants to advertise job openings for an extended period of time to prove conclusively that no U.S. workers are available could be so onerous that it renders the program ineffective."

The number of H-1B visa applications for this year actually fell to 199,000 from 236,000 received for 2016, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Trump's order will also ask federal agencies to look at how to get rid of loopholes in the government procurement process.

Specifically, the review will take into account whether waivers in free-trade agreements are leading to unfair trade by allowing foreign companies to undercut American companies in the global government procurement market.</s>“Right now, widespread abuse in our immigration system is allowing American workers from all backgrounds to be replaced by workers brought in from other countries to fill the same job, for, sometimes, less pay,” Trump said, adding that for several decades American workers have faced an unlevel playing field when put in competition with foreign workers. His executive order represents a first step toward making the system less reliant on a lottery—a mechanism he called “totally random” and “wrong,” since it didn’t simply award visas to the highest-skilled workers.

On Tuesday at the tool company Snap-on’s headquarters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Donald Trump gave a speech and signed an executive order rolling out his “Buy American, Hire American” agenda. The most actionable thing he laid out on the “Hire American” side of the plan was about reforming the H-1B visa program, through which 85,000 applicants are selected annually out of a pool of hundreds of thousands to gain the right to live and work in the U.S. for up to six years. Twenty thousand of these visas are reserved for applicants with a master’s degree or higher.

Depending on what Trump means by “widespread abuse”—he did not elaborate—he may find that H-1B reforms actually have fairly broad political appeal. The program is supposed to provide American employers with workers they can’t find domestically, but because certain labor laws (including minimum wages) don’t apply to H-1B holders in the same way they do to American citizens, companies can sometimes have an incentive to try to swap U.S. employees for foreign workers willing to work for less. There are regulations in place that are designed to prevent this, for example by disallowing firms from paying H-1B holders below-market wages, or by watching to make sure foreign hirees are net additions to a company’s workforce rather replacements. But critics, including some on the left, allow that these aren't always properly enforced, which can depress Americans’ wages and even cost their jobs.

And there are loopholes in the visa program that have drawn further criticism. In one high-profile 2015 case of abusing the program with a practice critics call “insourcing,” Disney laid off 200 IT workers and then hired immigrants on H-1Bs to perform much the same functions. The company said the new hires were not replacements, and that they couldn’t fill the positions from within the American workforce. But the claim was flimsy, and it kicked off a scandal that became fodder for Trump’s speeches.

The industry that’s most reliant on the H-1B program, and the one most likely to be affected by any coming changes, is tech. According to The New York Times, Facebook and Qualcomm alone employ 15 percent of the allotment of H-1B holders. Some 40 percent of the visas go to entry-level workers across the economy, a number Trump indicated he hopes to lower to make room for more highly-paid visa-holders.

It’s not clear exactly what Trump’s reforms will look like, if they happen at all. In practice, all the order he signed in Kenosha does on the H-1B issue is direct the heads of four federal departments—those of State, Homeland Security, Labor, and Justice—to review the policy by November and recommend changes. So there is hope that, for Trump’s fans and even his detractors, the “Hire American” agenda could yield some positive change to a system that has at times been criticized by both parties. But it seems hard to believe that the smartest and fairest possible immigration reforms will be the ones selected by a president whose path to office was so defined by vilifying foreigners.</s>FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump faces a news conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 16, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump on Tuesday will order federal agencies to look at tightening a temporary visa program used to bring high-skilled foreign workers to the United States, as he tries to carry out his campaign pledges to put “America First.”

Trump will sign an executive order on enforcing and reviewing the H-1B visa, popular in the technology industry, on a visit to the headquarters of Snap-On Inc, a tool manufacturer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, senior administration officials said.

He will also use what the White House called the “Buy American and Hire American” order to seek changes in government procurement that would boost purchases of American products in federal contracts, with one aim being to help U.S. steelmakers.

The moves will show Trump once again using his power to issue executive orders to try to fulfill promises he made last year in his election campaign, in this case to reform U.S. immigration policies and encourage purchases of American products.

Senior officials gave few details on implementation of the order but Trump aides have expressed concern that most H-1B visas are awarded for lower-paid jobs at outsourcing firms, many based in India, which they say takes work away from Americans. They seek a more merit-based way to give the visas to highly-skilled workers.

As he nears the 100-day benchmark of his presidency, Trump still has no major legislative achievements. With his attempts to overhaul healthcare and tax law not bearing fruit so far in a Congress controlled by his fellow Republicans, Trump has leaned heavily on executive orders to seek changes to the U.S. economy.

The venue for Trump’s visit on Tuesday is a nod to his voter base in the manufacturing centers of the American heartland. Wisconsin unexpectedly voted for the Republican last year, partly due to his promises to bring back industrial jobs.

His order will call for “strict enforcement of all laws governing entry into the United States of labor from abroad for the stated purpose of creating higher wages and higher employment rates for workers in the United States,” a senior official said.

It will call on the departments of Labor, Justice, Homeland Security and State to crack down on what the official called “fraud and abuse” in the U.S. immigration system, in order to protect American workers.

Instead of directly ordering a change to the H-1B visa program, Trump is taking a more cautious route that will likely take some time to produce actual results. He will ask those federal departments to propose reforms to ensure those visas are awarded to the most skilled or highest paid applicant.

H-1B visas are intended for foreign nationals in occupations that generally require higher education, including science, engineering or computer programming. The government uses a lottery to award 65,000 visas every year and randomly distributes another 20,000 to graduate student workers.

Companies say they use the visas to recruit top talent. More than 15 percent of Facebook Inc’s U.S. employees in 2016 used a temporary work visa, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. Labor Department filings.

Facebook, Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc were not immediately available for a comment.

Most H-1B visas are awarded to outsourcing firms, sparking criticism by skeptics who say those companies use the visas to fill lower-level information technology jobs. Critics say the lottery benefits outsourcing firms that flood the system with mass applications.

The senior official said that under the current system foreign workers are often brought in at less pay to replace American workers, “violating the principle of the program.”

Indian nationals are by far the largest group of recipients of the H-1B visas issued each year to new applicants.

NASSCOM, the Indian IT service industry’s main lobby group, said it supports efforts to root out any abuses occurring in the H-1B system, but said the idea that H-1B visa holders are cheap labor is inaccurate and a campaign to discredit the sector.

It warned that any onerous additional restrictions to the visa program would “hurt thousands of U.S. businesses and their efforts to be more competitive,” by hindering access to needed talent.

The Indian commerce ministry, which has been liaising with the United States on the visa issue, declined to comment. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Washington in February to be open minded on admitting skilled Indian workers.

India’s No. 2 IT Services firm, Infosys, has said it is ramping up work on on-site development centers in the United States to train local talent in an effort to address the visa regulation changes under consideration.

Infosys also warned last week that onerous changes to U.S. visa rules could affect its earnings.

Before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, his transition team discussed the possibility of scrapping the H-1B lottery and replacing it with a system to favor visa petitions for jobs that pay the highest salaries, in an effort to curb visas given to lower skilled tech workers.

“We hope the goal of President Trump’s executive order on the H-1B program is ‘mend it, don’t end it,’” Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation professional association, said in a statement.

He said replacing the H-1B lottery with a more merit-based system could advance the program’s goals of attracting people with advanced science and technology skills.

The number of H-1B visa applications for this year actually fell to 199,000 from 236,000 received for 2016, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Trump’s order will also ask federal agencies to look at how to get rid of loopholes in the government procurement process.

Specifically, the review will take into account whether waivers in free-trade agreements are leading to unfair trade by allowing foreign companies to undercut American companies in the global government procurement market.

“If it turns out America is a net loser because of those free-trade agreement waivers, which apply to almost 60 countries, these waivers may be promptly renegotiated or revoked,” the second official said.
As expected, during a visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring U.S. federal agencies to take measures aimed at protecting U.S. workers, boost protections for some U.S. products, and examine the H-1B visa program which affords foreign workers opportunities for employment in U.S. specialty fields.