I too regret a little bit the way this bill has come to the floor, but it is still a critical issue if we are going to move forward with the high-tech economy and keep our economy moving. 

We all know that the long-term solution to the skills gap we have in this country is not going to be immigrants from other countries. The long-term solution definitely involves improving our education system, and we are working to do that and we must work to do that. But in the short-term it is to our country's advantage to go out and take the best and brightest from the rest of the world and bring them to the U.S. to help grow our economy. 

I guess the strongest disagreement I have with the opponents of this legislation is their claim that it is going to cost us jobs. It is going to create jobs. In the Seattle-Puget Sound corridor, every high-tech job has an incredible multiplier effect. It creates jobs. Bringing in people who can fill these jobs is going to allow not just the Microsofts and the Boeings, but hundreds, if not thousands, of small companies in my district and my region to grow, by getting the skilled workers they need to enable them to continue to compete in our global economy and grow and actually create jobs. 

It is in our best interest to bring the best and the brightest from the rest of the world here to help our economy. That is the competitive and wise thing to do. 

This bill moves us in the right direction. There are many other immigration issues that need to be addressed. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. LOFGREN) once again has been an outstanding leader on all of those issues. We should address them, and we will work on them. But expanding the number of skilled workers that our businesses in this country have access to is the most critical issue facing business. 

Every business I go to, when I ask them what issues are most important to them, they always tell me the same thing: workforce. ``We can't get the people we need to grow to the level that we could be growing if we had those employees.'' 

This is a critical issue. I urge this House to pass this. It is not a perfect process. Nobody ever said Congress was a perfect process. But it is a good bill that we should support.