President Obama has signed a $1.1 trillion funding bill that will keep the federal government running until September 30, 2016. The Senate gave final congressional approval to the bill, which includes nearly $700 billion in tax breaks. The Senate adopted the Omnibus Appropriations Act by a vote of 65-33; the House did so by a 316-113 tally. The law comes as a shock for the Indian IT companies as they would have to pay millions of dollars while applying for H-1B visas, as they heavily rely on this work visa for highly skilled IT workers to get their work done in the US.

Indian IT companies have termed it as highly discriminatory and punitive as the text of the legislation has been written in such a way that such a high fee would have to be paid by only major Indian IT companies.

Companies having more than 50 employees and having more than 50 per cent of their US employees on H-1B and L1 visas would have to pay the new fee when the next visa application session kicks off on April 1, 2016. This year’s Congressional approved quota of 65,000 H-1B visas was filled up in the first few days of the start of the application process on April 1.

In fact the U.S. government had to resort to a computerized draw of lots as it received several times the quota of 65,000. The ‘Consolidated Appropriations Act 2016’ signed into law by Obama, includes a USD 1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that funds the government until September 30, 2016, as well as a USD 680 billion tax package.

Among other things, the new law makes US aid to Pakistan more stringent by asking the secretaries of state and defense to certify that Islamabad is taking actions against terrorist networks and meeting other conditions. US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said essential to this legislation are the IMF quota and governance reforms.