The TechServe Alliance reported that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee filed 300 amendments to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill on Tuesday. Some of the amendments would be helpful to IT services and staffing firms, some would not.

In particular, Senator Hatch is offering an amendment that would significantly improve a key definition in the bill making IT and engineering staffing firms who sponsor green cards less likely to be deemed a “dependent” employer. On the other side of the issue, Senator Grassley has proposed an amendment that would remove the green card exemption effectively rendering any firm that sponsors more than 15 percent of its workforce on H-1Bs a “dependent” employer. Under the language of the current bill, dependent firms would be completely prohibited from placing H-1B workers at client sites.

TechServe Alliance Government Affairs team is actively lobbying on these issues and will be communicating support and opposition to particular amendments.

The mark-up of the Comprehensive Immigration bill begins today, according to the TechServe Alliance. It is expected to take multiple days over the next several weeks. During the markup process, Senators will vote on each of these amendments. Once the markup process is completed, the bill is expected to be considered by the full Senate.

TechServe Alliance is a collaboration of IT staffing firms, solutions firms, clients, consultants and suppliers.