Letter to Senator John Cornyn

Economy/Jobs
I'm primarily a conservative libertarian and believe that government is the problem, not the solution, BUT I think when it comes to getting people back to work, the government needs to compell businesses to hire Americans first.

I'm an unemployed IT professional and I see lots of great jobs that I almost qualify for, but not quite. Why don't businesses consider that someone may be qualified enough for a position, despite the fact that they might not have exactly what is required.

Please consider these two things:
1. Businesses must hire citizens before hiring anyone imported into this country on an H1B visa.
2. If a job has been posted for 30 days without anyone meeting the businesses specific requirements, the government should compell the business to hire the next best qualified candidate or else face penalties.

Why do I propose this? Well, companies today often require specific technical expertise or years of experience in a specific skill, yet companies are not willing to train or develop employees with those skills. Everyone needs to be responsible for their personal development, but without the opportunity to gain experience in a production environment, having the education is not enough. Government needs to encourage businesses to develop the workforce of today and tomorrow with incentives or otherwise face penalties.

This needs to be done sooner rather than later or else this recession will deepen and last a lot longer than it needs to last. Foreign businesses operating in this country need to be required to develop the local workforce before they move workers from their company's home country.

Thank you for your consideration of my proposal and I hope that you will work to shepherd this through congress.