\n<\/p>\n
The law would affect all public colleges and universities in Iowa.<\/p>\n
An Iowa bill that would limit colleges\u2019 ability to hire international scholars has passed through the state\u2019s House and gained approval from a Senate committee, meaning it is just one floor vote and a signature away from becoming law, The Iowa Capital Dispatch <\/em>reports.<\/p>\n If passed, House File 2513 would prevent public institutions from hiring H-1B visa holders whose nation of origin is among those designated \u201cfederally designated foreign adversaries and state sponsors of terrorism.\u201d Examples include China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela. In recent months, Texas and Florida have moved to ban public universities from using H-1B visas to hire any foreign worker, though the directives provided for exemptions on a case-by-case basis. The federal government has also increased scrutiny of the program.<\/p>\n So far, the bill has seen general support from the Legislature\u2019s Republican majority, receiving a 68-to-27 vote last week in the House. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s faced no pushback. Some observers worry it could lead to legal repercussions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At the Senate subcommittee meeting Wednesday, Jillian Carlson, state relations officer for the Iowa Board of Regents, voiced the concern that the bill would \u201cconflict with both state and federal laws on discrimination based on national origin.\u201d She added that roughly 120 to 130 of the system\u2019s nearly 30,000 employees hold an H-1B visa.<\/p>\n Two of the subcommittee\u2019s three members\u2014one Democrat and one Republican\u2014said they share Carlson\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cThose numbers are concerning to me as to, is this what\u2019s in the best interest, not only for our students, but also for our country, [to] have individuals here that\u00a0\u2026 may not be loyal to America in the same manner that we all are?\u201d said Sen. Adrian Dickey, a Packwood Republican.<\/p>\n Still, the bill moved forward. Sen. Mike Pike, a Des Moines Republican and chair of the subcommittee, said anyone who votes against the bill is allowing \u201cthose we\u2019re actively engaged in conflict with who are killing our troops\u201d to access a \u201cfree pass.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI urge a yes vote on this bill that sends a message that it is not acceptable to hire professors whose main objective may be how they can best aid terrorism or foreign adversaries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The law would affect all public colleges and universities in Iowa. An Iowa bill that would limit colleges\u2019 ability to hire international scholars has passed through the state\u2019s House and gained approval from a Senate committee, meaning it is just one floor vote and a signature away from becoming law, The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[5024,142,9232,671,7334,3061,9233],"class_list":{"0":"post-46657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-advances","9":"tag-bill","10":"tag-h1b","11":"tag-house","12":"tag-iowa","13":"tag-limit","14":"tag-visas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}