Gates: U.S. needs skilled foreign minds

WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates told a U.S. Senate panel Wednesday U.S. immigration laws threaten to damage the nation's competitive advantage.

"We are failing to live up to our obligation to make the investments needed to make sure that the U.S. remains competitive in the future," Gates told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. "Our economic future is in peril."

Gates said the United States should loosen immigration rules for highly skilled, college-educated workers.

Washington currently lets 65,000 workers with at least a bachelor's degree in a specialty live in the United States for as long as six years on temporary H-1B visas. Gates suggested the restriction should be lifted entirely.

The idea has been blamed for encouraging brain drain in the source countries.

Gates said the United States should strengthen math, technology and science education so the nation can double the number of graduates in those areas by 2015.

He also called on Washington to increase investment in research and development. On that last point, he called on Congress to make the currently extended research-and-development tax credit permanent.