Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy is leading the charge to end H1-B visa abuses by reforming work and residency requirements, the Daily Caller learned.
Roy’s bill, dubbed the American White-Collar Worker Jobs Act, would implement major reforms to prevent employers from exploiting foreign workers, terminate the H1-B visa lottery system, and ensure companies prioritize local American workers over H-1B visa holders, according to bill text obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Heritage Foundation Offers Drastic Reforms To H1-B Visas As Trump Defends Program)
The legislation would implement these reforms by requiring H-1B visa applicants to be selected based on overall merit and requiring employers to pay the selectees the same wage as American workers with the same experience and qualifications.
The bill would also require a labor market test to determine if employers made a good faith effort to hire local workers before hiring H1-B visa holders. This test would be conducted by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
“For its nearly forty-year history, the H1-B visa has been abused, allowing employers to routinely sideline American STEM workers in favor of cheap foreign labor, while masking layoffs and wage suppression as ‘shortages,’” Roy told the Caller.
“It’s time to end this lottery-based pipeline and replace it with a system that prioritizes merit, enforces real wage standards, and puts America’s white-collar workers first,” Roy said.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 20: U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) attends the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Another key reform in Roy’s bill would abolish the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which grants temporary work authorization to international students. Eligible graduates with qualifying STEM degrees are also currently able to apply for a two-year extension, often displacing American workers in tech fields. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep Introduces Bill Banning Foreign Adversaries From Buying American Homes)
Tech companies laid off over 123,000 workers in 2026 alone despite the surge of STEM graduates in recent years. Nearly 40 percent of college freshmen are majoring in STEM fields, yet roughly 75 percent of STEM graduates are not employed within their relevant fields.
Although there is an abundance of qualified American STEM workers, the number of foreign STEM employees has more than doubled from 1.2 million in 2000 to nearly 2.5 million in 2019, according ot the American Immigration Council (AIC)