I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 139 

To provide for the recapture of unused employment-based immigrant visa 

numbers in order to facilitate improved health care for all persons in 

the United States. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 4, 2005 

Mr. LANTOS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To provide for the recapture of unused employment-based 

immigrant visa numbers in order to facilitate improved 

health care for all persons in the United States. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Health Improvement 

5 and Professionals Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 
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1 (1) The United States is in the midst of a nurs2 ing shortage that is expected to intensify as the need 

3 for health care services increases. 

4 (2) The Department of Labor has identified 

5 registered nurses has one of the top 5 job growth oc6 cupations in the United States, and that more than 

7 1,000,000 new and replacement nurses will be need8 ed by 2012. 

9 (3) By the year 2012, at least 44 States and 

10 the District of Columbia will be experiencing a nurs11 ing shortage. 

12 (4) According to surveys conducted by the Har13 vard School of Public Health and the Henry J. Kai14 ser Family Foundation, over 50 percent of physi15 cians have indicated that the nursing shortage is a 

16 leading cause of medical error 

17 (5) The New England Journal of Medicine has 

18 reported that a higher proportion of nursing care is 

19 associated with better outcomes for hospitalized pa20 tients. 

21 (6) In spite of this documented need for reg22 istered nurses, enrollments in baccalaureate nursing 

23 programs at colleges and universities across the 

24 United States have declined for 5 consecutive years. 
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1 (7) Because of an important and overdue effort 

2 by the Department of Homeland Security to clear a 

3 backlog of adjustments of status from nonimmigrant 

4 employment-based visas to immigrant employment5 based visas, the number of employment-based visas 

6 available to certified nurses living abroad who want 

7 to come to the United States has declined to vir8 tually zero. 

9 (8) The adjustment of status program will not 

10 bring new medical personnel to the United States. 

11 (9) In 2000, Congress passed the American 

12 Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 

13 2000, which, in part, recaptured unused employ14 ment-based visas from previous years in order to in15 crease the number of medical and other personnel 

16 available to fill critical jobs in the United States. 

17 (10) Since the passage of that legislation, be18 cause of ongoing backlogs, a large number of em19 ployment-based visas have not been used, including 

20 more than 50,000 visas in fiscal year 2003 alone. 

21 SEC. 3. RECAPTURE OF UNUSED EMPLOYMENT-BASED IM22 MIGRANT VISAS. 

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi24 sion of law, the number of employment-based visas (as de25 fined in subsection (c)) made available for a fiscal year 
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1 (beginning with fiscal year 2005) shall be increased by the 

2 number described in subsection (b). Visas made available 

3 under this section shall only be available in a fiscal year 

4 to employment-based immigrants under paragraph (1), 

5 (2), or (3) of section 203(b) of the Immigration and Na6 tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)). 

7 (b) NUMBER AVAILABLE.—

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 

9 the number described in this subsection is the dif10 ference between the number of employment-based 

11 visas that were made available in fiscal years 2001, 

12 2002, 2003, and 2004 and the number of such visas 

13 that were actually used in such fiscal years. 

14 (2) REDUCTION.—The number described in 

15 paragraph (1) shall be reduced, for each fiscal year 

16 after fiscal year 2005, by the cumulative number of 

17 immigrant visas actually used under subsection (a) 

18 for previous fiscal years. 

19 (3) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sub20 section shall be construed as affecting the applica21 tion of section 201(c)(3)(C) of the Immigration and 

22 Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1151(c)(3)(C)). 

23 (c) EMPLOYMENT-BASED VISAS DEFINED.—For 

24 purposes of this section, the term ‘‘employment-based 

25 visa’’ means an immigrant visa which is issued pursuant 
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1 to the numerical limitation under section 203(b) of the 

2 Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)). 

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