Tech asks departing Republicans for favors

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The response from Capitol Hill, however, has been noncommittal. An aide to the Senate Democratic leadership said Monday that Minority Leader Harry Reid "strongly supports passage of the R&D tax credit" but could not comment further on a timeline. An aide on the Republican side, however, was less optimistic about the possibility of action before the end of the year, characterizing that prospect as "unlikely." A House Democratic staffer said his chamber was similarly in wait-and-see mode.

Another urgent priority touted by business lobbyists, both inside and outside the technology sector, is securing passage of legislation that would elevate the number of visas, known as H-1Bs, and green cards for skilled foreign workers.

It was during a lame-duck session after the 2004 election that Congress last agreed to a number of changes in the visa program. As part of a catch-all spending bill, the politicians decided to grant 20,000 additional visas to foreigners who earn a master's degree or higher from a U.S. institution.

"We have widespread support for the provisions we're pushing, but they've been caught up in the broader immigration debate this year."

--Lynn Shotwell, chairwoman of Compete America

Earlier this year, the Senate voted to raise the cap to 115,000 as part of a sweeping immigration bill. (The government's baseline H-1B quota has remained at 65,000 since 2004, after peaking at 195,000 between 2001 and 2003.) The measure also contains a provision stipulating that if that cap is reached in a certain year, then it can be raised by 20 percent for the next year. But the House has yet to reconcile that bill with its own competing immigration proposal, which appears to contain no H-1B provisions.

"We have widespread support for the provisions we're pushing, but they've been caught up in the broader immigration debate this year," said Lynn Shotwell, chairwoman of Compete America, which sent Monday's letter with more than 200 signatures. The group markets its platform as ensuring that "U.S. employers have the ability to hire and retain the world's best talent."

Organizations that represent American technology workers, such as the Programmers Guild, have opposed that approach, saying there would be no need for additional visas if stronger safeguards were in place to prevent their abuse. They voiced support for a competing version of legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), which did not advance in Congress and thus stands virtually no chance of passage during the lame-duck session.

"If there was a labor shortage, as proponents allege, then the 'best and brightest' tech workers being laid off by Intel, HP and dozens of other companies would be snapped up," Programmers Guild wrote in a message that it encouraged supporters to e-mail to their local representatives. "Instead, many are unable to find work. Many U.S. IT workers with degrees and several years of experience cannot find full-time work either."

Beyond work on the R&D tax credit, the Republican Congress likely won't accomplish much else of note to the technology industry, some lobbyists said. For instance, few expected movement on a massive telecommunications bill that passed a Senate committee in June without Net neutrality provisions sought by Internet companies like Google and eBay.

And despite President Bush's recent renewed calls for the Senate to approve a controversial bill that would expand the government's ability to monitor e-mail and telephone communications without a warrant, even Republican aides acknowledged that bill's fate remains up in the air. (The House managed to pass a Republican-backed companion bill, mostly along party lines, just before the chambers adjourned for pre-election campaigning.)

On Capitol Hill, an early Christmas tree
"Issues like telecom, surveillance, copyright and patents are too controversial, too intricate or both for such a short session," said Will Rodger, public policy director for the Computer and Communications Industry Association, whose members include Google, Oracle and Sun Microsystems. "Congress, in the meantime, has a slew of appropriations bills to pass, and those could take up all the time they have left."

There's always the possibility that politicians could sneak seemingly unrelated provisions into those appropriations bills. The practice has become so widespread that it even has an official name: a "Christmas tree bill."

A pending measure that lays out budgets for the U.S. departments of justice and commerce, for instance, also contains a controversial proposal that operators of "sexually explicit" sites label each page they put online as such.

Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, recently said he had reason to fear that Tennessean Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is retiring, might try to slip a proposal for a so-called "broadcast flag" into a spending bill. Such a law is designed to curb digital TV piracy by making certain receivers illegal to sell.

The ITAA's Bond said his organization would be similarly vigilant to back-door attempts at pushing through questionable policies. "We'll need to make sure that if somebody tries to slip something in there," he said, "it represents the best and balanced (approach)."

CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.