President Bush on Wednesday invoked the young Indian scientist to call for a hike in the H1-B visa programme which allows skilled foreign workers to come to the United States. In a speech on energy issues before workers and executives at a Dupont facility in Delaware, Bush pressed for both free trade and freer movement of skilled professionals, saying they could help meet America’s energy challenges, and summoned the Indian example in both cases. "We've got to expand what's called H1B visas...I feel strongly about what I'm telling you. It makes no sense to say to a young scientist from India, you can't come to America to help this company develop technologies that help us deal with our problems," Bush told the Dupont gathering. The H1-B visa program is currently capped at 65,000 and efforts are on to expand it to 115,000 to meet what high-tech industry executives say is a worrisome shortage of high skilled people. A bill to this effect was rejected in the last Congress but it is expected to be introduced again in the 110th Congress.

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