Science job and workforce growth in the United States could be stymied under current federal controls that govern visas and exports, warns a new report, which calls for a revision of the existing regulations.

The January 2009 report by the National Research Council, Beyond “Fortress America”: National Security Controls on Science and Technology in a Globalized World, says current visa and export regulations are rooted in the 1950s, hamper US competitiveness and impede science and technology job and industry growth.

US visa and export regulations impede the free flow of people into the country as well as information or products out of it. Recent changes in visa laws have lengthened the time it takes for a non-US resident to get a US visa, the US state department concedes on its website. Export laws limit or bar publication of information and exportation of goods that could potentially pose a threat to national security.

The regulations are driving critical jobs, and valuable discoveries and inventions, overseas, the report says.

John Hennessy, president of Stanford University in California, was co-chair of the council committee that authored the report, and Deanne Siemer, a lawyer and consultant, and Gerald Epstein, from think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, both based in Washington, DC, joined him on the committee. They say non-US students and scientists must have access to US universities and science labs. Research collaborations are jeopardized when non-US scientists experience delays getting a visa and can stay for only a brief period, they say.

“Increasingly, we see organizations choosing to have meetings outside the United States to avoid visa issues,” Hennessy says. “If we don't permit the world's best students and scholars, scientists and technologists to come here, [science job creation] won't happen,” says Epstein.

“Science and technology graduates are the ones who actually create more US science jobs,” agrees Siemer.

The report recommends non-US scientists receive a visa under an accelerated skill-based selection process. “We must get that talent here faster,” Siemer says. “We're talking about our economic competitiveness.”

If we don't permit the world's best students and scholars, scientists and technologists to come here, [science job creation] won't happen. Gerald Epstein, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC

Siemer believes an executive order from the White House mandating the recommended changes could be signed. “There is a large reservoir of expertise behind this report,” Siemer says. “It's likely this will be adopted.”