Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, SENATE NEWS—Grassley and Durbin propose bipartisan legislation to reform H-1B and L-1 visa programs, (Sep 30, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Among other things, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act would implement new wage, recruitment and attestation requirements for employers seeking to hire H-1B and L-1 workers and increase penalties for wage violations.

Yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) reintroduced bipartisan legislation intended to reform and close loopholes in the H-1B and L-1 visa programs. The “H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act” was first introduced under a different name in 2007 and enjoys bipartisan support. Senator Grassley explains that “There’s bipartisan acknowledgement that these programs ought to be returned to their intended purpose.” The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act would impact companies that import large numbers of H-1B and L-1 workers, they explain, and thus displace American workers and outsource American jobs. It would also provide the Department of Labor (DOL) new authorities and responsibilities to ensure enforcement.

New requirements, higher penalties. The Act would, among other things: implement new wage, recruitment and attestation requirements for employers seeking to hire H-1B and L-1 workers; require employers seeking to hire H-1B employees to post those jobs on a searchable DOL website as a resource for both U.S. workers and laid-off H-1B nonimmigrants; authorize DOL to impose certain application fees and use those fees to hire additional DOL employees; make reforms to the H-1B program by prioritizing H-1B visa issuance for workers with higher levels of education in STEM and amending the definition of a “specialty occupation” to require a bachelor’s degree or higher; make reforms to the L-1 nonimmigrant program; and increase penalties for wage violations.

“Congress created the H-1B and L-1 visa programs as limited pathways for businesses to acquire top talent when it can’t be found at home. But over the years,” said Grassley, “many employers have used them to cut out American workers in favor of cheap foreign labor. Congress must step in again to bring integrity back to these programs and restore dignity for American and foreign workers.”

“Major companies are laying off thousands of American workers while filing thousands of visa petitions for foreign workers at depressed wages and poor working conditions. Congress must step in to protect American workers and fix our broken immigration system.

Senator Grassley and I will work to make this bipartisan bill the law of the land,” Durbin said.

Letters. Last week, the senators also sent letters to 10 major U.S. employers, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, regarding their heavy use of H-1B visas while simultaneously laying off thousands of American workers. For example, Amazon in FY 2025 applied for and received approval to hire over 10,000 foreign H-1B employees, even though it has laid off tens-of-thousands of employees in recent years, the senators contend. Apple similarly had workforce reductions in 2024, but in FY 2025 received approval to hire over 4,200 foreign H-1B employees.

President’s price tag. One week prior to this legislation being announced, President Trump issued a proclamation relating to the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program as well, setting a $100,000 price tag on the entry of aliens as nonimmigrants through the H-1B provisions of the INA, for a 12-month period after the proclamation’s effective date.

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