WHEN THE ARSONIST CALLS THE FIRE DEPARTMENT:

What happened: Two senior Democrats, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Monday that more federal oversight over government funds was needed after reports that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may have used interest earned from federal Covid aid to pay to send migrants to Martha's Vineyard.

"I met with a group of mayors over the weekend and county officials. And I warned them months ago when we put this money on the table that I didn't want to hear about the world's greatest frisbee park being built as a result of it -- do something serious that we can defend. What DeSantis is doing is just a political stunt. ... That money should be spent at least for the people of Florida."

That big immigration bill working its way through the Senate would let in lots more highly skilled workers on temporary visas. But there's a catch.

The bill says all employers who want to hire workers on these H-1B visas:

... would be required to advertise on an Internet website maintained by the Department of Labor and offer the job to any U.S. worker who applies and is equally or better qualified than the immigrants ... sought...

This language could be a "poison pill" for companies that want to hire workers on these visas, according to Ted Ruthizer, an immigration attorney with a big firm that works with companies who want to hire skilled foreign workers.

Under the provision, an American who applied for a job that went to a foreign worker on an H-1B visa could complain to the Department of Labor. The department could come back years later and audit the hiring process. Depending on the auditors' findings, the company could be fined and barred from the visa process for a few years.

"Employers may well decide they are not prepared to sift through hundreds or even thousands of resumes and then have to document the deficiencies of each US applicant to hire an H-1B professional, no matter how talented," Ruthizer told me. "How about preferring someone who is more articulate and expresses more original ideas? Are those reasons that the government will accept? I doubt it very much."

Sen. Dick Durbin is one of the co-sponsors of the bill.

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