Nearly three months after the US immigration agency started accepting petitions for the H-1B visas for highly-skilled foreign professionals, it is still looking for more than 20,000 applications to fill the Congressionally-mandated cap of 65,000.
Congressman Mike Honda of California, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of the Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus, believes the ability of the Indian-American community to mobilize is an increasingly potent indication of its clout, and that it can translate into an effective weapon in the coming presidential elections.
Moreover, the deficit represents 9.9 per cent of the national gross domestic product.
Mark Zuckerberg said one of his greatest regrets was that Facebook has been slow in identifying the Russian information operations in 2016.
'The resolution is the first time that any state, nation or investigative body has declared that the Indian government was responsible for the 1984 genocide of Sikhs.'
India is "very important" for America's foreign policy and crucial for the stability and peace in the region, an influential US lawmaker said on Thursday. "India is a very important part of the United States foreign policy," Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who is co-chair of the Congressional caucus on Pakistan and heads the Afghan caucus said at a panel discussion in Washington.
US Senators Christopher Dodd, Connecticut Democrat and John Cornyn, Texas Republican have launched an attempt to revive the largely comatose US Senate India Caucus.
Hillary Clinton was publicly sworn in as United States Secretary of State by Vice President Joe Biden at a ceremony held at Foggy Bottom. Hillary's husband and former US President Bill Clinton and her daughter Chelsea were also present at the ceremonial swearing-in ceremony on Monday, which included several former Secretaries of States and Congressional leaders. She is the 67th Secretary of State. Hillary replaces Condoleezza Rice of the previous Bush administration.
Though the Indian caucus in the Obama administration is concerned over the recent reports concerning Pakistan's funds being used against India, it may be unable to bring any changes in the Kerry-Lugar bill that has assured Pakistan of USD 1.5 billion on an annual basis for five years.
According to the CNN, Senator Kennedy collapsed at the inauguration luncheon. However, channel did not give any details leading to the collapse of the veteran Democratic leader from Massachusetts.
"India is one of our most important allies and creating an exchange program between members of the US Congress and Representatives of India's Parliament will only deepen our ties and lead to greater understanding between our countries," McDermott said.
Virtually supporting India's precondition for any peace talks with Pakistan, a top United States diplomat on Thursday said Islamabad needs to do more to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, which claimed over 170 lives including six Americans. Robert Blake, now tipped to become the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department, told a powerful Congressional Committee that Pakistan needs to do more on 26/11.
Indian Intelligence agencies have drawn much flak for their glaring lack in communication that failed to preempt the 26/11 terror attacks last year. American intelligence agencies operating in South Asia also don't share information with each other, Massachusetts Democrat and Senator John F Kerry, who recently visited Indian, Pakistan and Afghanistan, revealed during a Congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Given the rate at which the USCIS has now been receiving the H-1B applications on a daily basis, officials said it would not be a surprise that they announce that the cap has been reached before the end of this year.
United States vice president-elect Joe Biden will lead a bipartisan Congressional delegation on a visit to Southwest Asia before he takes office alongside Barack Obama on January 20. For security reasons, details of the trip and the countries to be visited have not been released. Biden would be accompanied by Senator John Kerry, the former Democratic Presidential candidate and the incoming Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Democrats and Republicans have struck a deal to offer $1.375 billion for 88.5 kilometres of new barriers along the southern border, as well as other border security measures to avert another crippling government shutdown over Trump's wall along the US-Mexico border.
The suit alleges that Acosta and CNN's First and Fifth Amendment rights are being violated by the ban.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it has received approximately 49,000 H-1B petitions till August seven counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap, more than four months after it started accepting applications for visas for the 2010 fiscal beginning this October.
A decision on this could be taken before Christmas, which might not necessarily result in a formal announcement as that could be delayed till the next year, people familiar with her thinking process said.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, went ballistic at a forum in Washington DC, slamming Congressional critics, the media and leading analysts who have predicted that Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a failed state and bound to implode, and those who have accused the ISI of colluding with al Qaeda and the Taliban while Islamabad rakes in the massive largesse of American economic and security assistance.
She's highly articulate, extremely charming, yet unabashedly hawkish when it comes to defending Pakistan, warts and all on the Kashmir issue, and this is sure to be a thorn in India's side in the think-tank circuit in Washington in the months to come and during Congressional hearings on South Asia, to which she's certain to be invited to testify.
Robert Hathaway, currently director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, said, "The US calls for patience are not likely to satisfy New Delhi, and when Secretary Rice arrives in India she is likely to face sharp questioning about Washington's continued support for Pakistan."
This is against the Congressionally-mandated cap of 65,000 H-1B visas for this year.
The US wants its trade with India to grow multi-fold, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told lawmakers.
The Mexican government said on Monday it would slap tariffs on 90 US industrial and agricultural products in retaliation of a Congressional action which ended the programme giving Mexican trucks access to US highways. The 2009 Omnibus appropriations Bill, passed by the Congress, terminated the project between the two countries.
Amidst growing Congressional concern over the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, US Senator Thomas R Carperas said that "preventing Pakistan's nuclear weapons and technology from falling into the wrong hands should remain top priority." Carperas chairs the Senate Subcommittee on International Security -- an appendage of the larger Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, who arrived in Washington had critical bilateral discussions with senior administration and Congressional leaders on issues related to WTO and bilateral issues.
The US Congressional committee, which is inquiring into the country's Food and Drug Administration's handling of drug-marketing approvals of India's leading drug-maker Ranbaxy, has extended its probe into similar permissions given to Iceland's Actavis.
According to the latest figure update by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, approximately 46,700 of the H-1B visas in the general category were filled up by September 25; against a Congressional mandated figure of 65,000.
Pakistan is trying to dissipate the anger and concern in Congressional circles and among the public at large on this score that Pakistan is not being wholly cooperative, acknowledged that "given the history of India-Pakistan relations, you will have some sort of backward and forward movement.
The president, however, implied about declaring a national emergency if the Congress did not approve a funding for the wall by February 15.
'The deal on offer creates a Tarapur-style trap of gigantic dimensions. In fact, the latest Act specifically empowers the US to do what it did in 1978 -- retroactively rewrite the rules of cooperation with India by enacting a new domestic law.'
Gregory Meeks, speaking to nearly 150 Indian Americans who had come to Capitol Hill as part of a Task Force to express outrage over the Mumbai terror attacks, couldn't contain his euphoria over the swearing in of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American President and the indirect connection to Mahatma Gandhi
Trump said it is 'very, very important' to have offensive capability, as well as defensive capability that's within the schools.
The Senate version of the bill of approval of the Indo-United States nuclear agreement was introduced on Wednesday in the House of Representatives, giving boost to efforts to push the agreement hours before a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush in Washington.The bill was introduced by the Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
The US also rejected 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's remarks that America and India have joined hands against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In a missive to Bush, USCIRF chair Felice D Gaer urged him to 'ask Prime Minister Singh to ensure the immediate security of Indian citizens -- security that is undermined by recurrent attacks on religious minorities and communities.'
'Clawback' provisions tied to federal bailout funds will be hotly contested. Right now only bankers who committed clear fraud are liable
Once the most sought after H-1B American work visa is still having nearly 20,000 slots open seven weeks after the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) started receiving applications for the financial year 2010 beginning October this year.
Reflecting the immense respect he has for his idol Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama will replicate on his special luncheon menu the food served to the civil war-era US president after his inauguration in 1861. Soon after being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Obama would have his first lunch hosted by the joint congressional committee on inaugural ceremonies at the historic Statuary Hall at the US capitol.
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