Short Take: Clinton signs high-tech visa bill into law

More high-tech immigrant workers will be allowed into the United States as a result of a bill President Bill Clinton signed into law late Tuesday. The new law the amount of skilled workers allowed to enter the country on H-1B visas to 195,000 from 115,000 for the next three years. The ceiling had been scheduled to go down as part of a phase-out of the program, but major firms such as Microsoft, Intel and Sun Microsystems lobbied for the increase, citing a shortage of trained workers in the United States. Another provision of the new law focuses on increasing technology training to American students as a way to decrease the reliance on such visas in the future.