Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has articulated a new vision for the H-1B visa program that he describes as a “home run” for American workers. This comes after confusion sparked by Donald Trump, who suggested the US needs more skilled foreign “talent” because Americans “don’t have certain talents” for technical roles.
Bessent clarified that this “need for talent” is not for permanent job-filling, but for temporary “knowledge transfer.” The new policy, he said, is to “bring in overseas workers who have the skills for three, five, seven years to train the US workers.” After this period, they are expected to “go home.”
This “train and return” strategy is designed to solve a critical skills gap in the US. Bessent pointed out that in key industries like shipbuilding and semiconductor manufacturing, the US has fallen behind. “An American can’t have that job, not yet,” he stated, “Because we haven’t built ships in the US for years.”
The administration’s plan is to use these foreign experts as temporary instructors. This directly addresses Trump’s comment that “people have to learn.” According to Bessent’s clarification, it will be foreign experts teaching them, but only for a limited time.
The “home run,” as Bessent puts it, is the end result: “US workers will fully take over.” The policy uses “overseas partners” strategically to upskill the domestic workforce, ensuring that the high-tech, high-paying jobs of the future are ultimately held by Americans.