Has the U.S. really increased the number of visas?

A few weeks back I reported that the U.S. Senate passed the CIR bill. Since then I've been approached by a few friends who said that the U.S. has increased the number of visas for the high-skilled. This is another example of painting the rosy picture by the news media. While it is true that these provisions exist in the CIR bill, it is not true that the U.S. has passed these provisions. The CIR bill has only passed the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives has to reconcile it with their version which didn't have any immigration benefits, instead they had provisions for fencing the border and deporting illegals. So at the end of the House-Senate conference committee (which has not yet been formed and which some House Republican members are threatening to kill), it may be possible that no pro-legal immigration provisions come out at all. Whatever comes out of the conference committee will be signed into law by President Bush.

Last year there was a Budget Reconciliation Bill, the Senate version (S.1932) of which included increasing visa numbers; but in the House-Senate conference, the House members managed to remove all immigration benefits except allocating 50,000 re-captured visas for nurses . House members are local politicians who don't care much about the U.S. as a whole and Senate members are mostly more educated and are more world-conscious. All bills have to pass both houses before they can be signed into law by the President.

For a quick skinny on the U.S. Congress visit this link at Wikipedia.