Bill Introduced to Allow Foreign Workers to Remain in the U.S.

A look at the week of June 20 in public advocacy for the IT channel:

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced a bill allowing foreign IT students to remain in the country after graduation. The first wave of healthcare IT trained professionals will graduate this spring, helping to address a major shortage of workers in this field. The White House hopes that news of recent cyberattacks will build public support for its comprehensive cybersecurity bill. The federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra is leaving his post for a Harvard Fellowship.

Bill Introduced to Allow Foreign Workers to Remain in the U.S. — Nextgov reports that representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has introduced her widely anticipated high-skilled worker bill, the 2011 Immigration Driving Entrepreneurship in America (IDEA) Act. The bill would allow foreign IT students to remain and work in the U.S. after receiving their degree.

First Class of HIT-Trained Grads to Enter Workforce — Graduates equipped with the dynamic duo of healthcare and IT skills began cascading out of community college programs this spring. According to Government Health IT the first class, 3,000 students strong, constitutes a vanguard of healthcare IT professionals completing six-month programs designed to fill a critical shortfall in the workforce: EHR expertise.

White House Hopes Cyberattack Disclosures Build Support for Federal Security Law — The recent rash of disclosures about cyberspying comes as the White House is making its third attempt to push through a historic federal cybersecurity law. According to USA Today, analysts say the timing is no coincidence. The White House needs to garner public support in order to pass the bill and hopes that the disclosure of recent attacks will help drum up support for their cybersecurity policy.

Federal CIO To Leave Position for Harvard — Vivek Kundra, the federal government’s first chief information officer, plans to leave his position in August for a fellowship with Harvard University, the White House announced. The Washington Post notes that Kundra’s pending departure comes as the administration’s e-government fund is slated to lose about two-thirds of its money to budget cuts.