11

  President Biden got some great news on Friday  with a report that the economy added 517,000 jobs in January. But House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, says that isn’t good enough, noting that the workforce is still smaller than it was before the pandemic. And he’s notably blaming that in part on federal welfare programs. “We should end Democrats’ welfare-without-work policies that have sidelined labor, rein in this unbridled spending, and reduce the tax and regulatory burden that are forcing our economy into a recession.” Why it matters: Arrington may want to make a case for tightening work requirements in programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. If so, that could set up a partisan battle over the next farm bill, since SNAP makes up about 80% of the spending .

  Story continues Big Tech has not only relied on global talent to maintain their demanding business endeavors but dominates the majority of the skilled-labor allowed into the country. In 2017, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, and Google were in the top 10 employers for approved H-1B visa petitions, according to a National Foundation for American policy report. In 2021, nearly 70% of H-1B visa petition approvals went to "computer-related" occupations. With enough resources and access to top immigration lawyers, Big Tech has been able to receive approvals for nearly all of their H-1B visa petitions in past years, monopolizing most of the foreign-born technical workers. Leaders of tech corporations have historically critiqued efforts to curtail H-1B visa distribution, calling the 2020 Trump-era visa freeze "incredibly bad policy." In the tech sphere's decade of exuberant growth, specialized and international labor appeared to be integral to their business models. The lim...