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Washington, Aug.13 (ANI): The US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) has strongly urged President Barack Obama to reconsider the enactment of the H1-B and L-1 visa fee hike provision in the border security bill.

The US Senate on Thursday passed the Bill which would increase visa fees for H1-B and L-1 by 2,000 dollars per visa per person.

USINPAC had earlier alerted the Senate to the potential damage the provision would cause to the US economy by permanently moving such jobs out of the country and negatively impacting US-India trade relations. (Please give weblink to the earlier PR if possible.)

While USINPAC supports the efforts to beef up border security operations, it is concerned that the visa fee hike to fund the 600 million dollar package would seriously damage US exports to the rapidly growing Indian market.

Kersy Dastur, Senior Advisor, USINPAC, expressed concern over the passage of the Bill in the Senate and said, “It is necessary to see beyond gaining electoral brownie points and understand the ramifications of the visa fee hike on American jobs and exports. Though the Senate has passed the Bill, we strongly urge President Obama to reconsider the visa fee hike provision before signing it into law.

Sanjay Puri, Chairman of USINPAC, said “President Obama has made doubling of US Exports in five years a key aspect of his trade policy. By picking on and what is arguably one of the most prominent symbols of India’s resurgence we have not created a very positive environment for US exports in India which happens to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world. ”

The US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) is a bi-partisan non-profit organization and the voice of 2.7 million Indian-Americans. It works to impact policy on issues of concern to the Indian-American community in the US.

It also provides bipartisan support to candidates for federal, state and local office who support the issues that are important to the Indian-American community. (ANI)