WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP...THIS IS NONSENSE..Infact H1-B costs for firms are going to rise in the next year or so, and more and more firms are reluctant to give green cards off of H-1. If you are a Finance major at undergrad, its even rougher to get H1's. It makes no sense why the government would want to give 24 months of OPT and increase the quotas, unless they are competing with growing economies like India and China with respect to human capital. If they feel like they want to retain skilled people and give them more incentives and flexibility to work, then maybe...but it makes no sense. From a company standpoint, this would cost them a lot, and I certainly don't think the U.S. skilled labor force is experiencing any sort of scarcity. I don't think it is going to pass congress.As far as issuing work permits to illegals is concerned, remember a lot of illegal workers have degrees or some sort of white collar skill. If they get sponsored and get their employment visas, who is going to fill the vaccum at the blue collar level? Perhaps the unskilled people who come here on diversity lotteries by forging documents.This is so absurd.Once people get work permits they will seek better jobs..Unless they are required to stick to the job that is sponsoring them through this program. What is going to happen to these small businesses that have illegal people? How are their tax reports going to change? A lot of businesses that have undocumented workers, donot report them in their payrolls to the IRS. They pay them cash and evade taxes. Now they will have to report everybody, and this blows for them. Plus, who qualifies for this? This sounds like pure propaganda from the Bush administration. Don't have your hopes too high on this folks!! Keep your options diversified. Also, why are they going to give visas to illegals if you say they are planning to crack down on them?