Two United States senators have proposed a bill that will give US workers first crack at technology job openings and toughen the H-1B visa program, reports said.

The Senators announced the filing of their bill on the same day that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services agency began accepting H-1B applications for the federal government's 2008 fiscal year.

The bill -- introduced by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) just before Congress departed for its spring recess -- is designed to curb abuse of the controversial worker visa system, CNET News.com reported.

External Link: Senate bill gives Americans preference for tech jobs

Senator Durbin, in a statement, said, 'Our immigration policy should seek to complement our US workforce, not replace it.'

It said that the 32-page Senate bill will impose a host of additional obligations on employers.

Infoworld quoted the two lawmakers as saying that the bill -- called the H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2007 -- would authorise the US Department of Labor to hire 200 additional employees to administer, oversee, investigate, and enforce the H-1B program.

External Link: H-1B bill give U.S. workers first shot at tech jobs

It reported that it will also enable the DOL to conduct random audits of employers that use H-1B visas and give the agency more power to investigate H-1B applications.

In addition, the measure would require companies to advertise job openings for 30 days on the DOL's Web site before submitting applications to hire H-1B workers, the Infoworld report said.

US must give 'infinite' H-1B visas: Bill Gates

Reports added that the bill also includes a variety of other provisions, including one that would prohibit employers from hiring H-1B workers and then outsourcing them to other businesses and another that would require companies to pay prevailing wages to both H-1B and L-1 visa holders.

Supporters of the H-1B program, primarily IT industry trade groups, said foreign nationals are needed to fill critical jobs for which there aren't enough US workers. But opponents claim that H-1B holders are being used to depress the wages of US workers and to support offshoring efforts.

Demand for the visas is expected to be brisk, with the annual cap of 65,000 standard visas potentially being reached within a day or two. An additional 25,000 H-1B visas are set aside for workers with advanced degrees from US universities.

The report also quoted A spokesman for the IEEE-USA, the political lobbying arm of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc, as saying that the Washington-based professional association would support the Durbin-Grassley legislation. The IEEE-USA has long sought reforms to the H-1B program.

The legislation filed by Durbin and Grassley also includes several provisions that would affect the L-1 visa program, which lets multinational corporations relocate employees to the US through intra-company transfers, the reports said.

The CNET News.com report said that companies with 50 or more workers would not be allowed to employ more than half of their staff through H-1B visas.

In an attempt to discourage employers from hiring foreigners at lower wages than their American counterparts would command, employers would have to pay all H-1B workers the prevailing wage, as calculated by a different method that raises the minimum to a higher level than it currently stands, the report added.