Congress moves to block foreign tech workers, raising visa wage floor to $150,000

What it does

This bill terminates the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allows foreign students to work in the U.S. for up to three years after graduation, and raises the minimum wage for H-1B visa workers to $150,000 annually (indexed to inflation), prioritizing higher-paying petitions in the visa lottery. The stated intent is to reduce employer incentives to hire foreign workers over U.S. citizens by eliminating a tax-advantaged pathway and forcing employers to pay premium wages for visa sponsorship.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is to reduce the supply and increase the cost of foreign visa workers through program termination and wage floors, framed as protecting U.S. workers from wage suppression. This is a direct labor-market intervention using immigration policy as the lever.

What the text implies

• Terminating OPT eliminates a three-year work window for foreign STEM graduates already in the U.S., forcing immediate departure or visa status change; this may disrupt ongoing projects and reduce incentives for foreign students to study in the U.S., potentially shrinking the U.S. talent pipeline.
• The $150,000 minimum wage floor applies only to H-1B workers, not to U.S. workers in the same roles; this creates a wage-floor inversion where employers must pay foreign workers more than domestic hires, potentially incentivizing substitution of domestic workers with higher-paid foreign workers or reducing hiring altogether.
• Prioritizing higher-wage H-1B petitions in the visa lottery may shift the composition of visa recipients toward senior/specialized roles, reducing the supply of mid-career foreign workers and potentially concentrating visa access among large tech firms that can afford premium wages.
• The rule of construction (Section 5) may preempt future executive branch expansion of work-authorization programs without explicit congressional approval, constraining regulatory flexibility in response to labor-market changes.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

U.S. workers may benefit from reduced competition for entry-level and mid-career tech roles and higher wage floors for visa-sponsored positions. However, the bill may reduce labor supply in high-skill sectors, potentially raising costs for consumers and businesses, and eliminates a pathway that benefited foreign students already in the U.S. The net effect on ordinary citizens depends on whether wage gains for some workers outweigh potential economic efficiency losses and cost increases.

Who stands to gain

• U.S. workers in tech and related fields (via reduced competition and potential wage pressure on empl
• Domestic staffing and recruitment firms (via increased demand for U.S. worker placement)

Named in the bill

Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Department of Homeland Security, USCIS, Optional Practical Training Program, H-1B visa program, F-1 student visa holders

Where it stands

2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.

• Sep 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Sep 16, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $50,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Jim Banks, the sponsor, reported $559,626 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Lufthansa German Airlines — $50,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 14, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.