Proposed federal legislation would exempt scientists from some US immigration quotas. Similar legislation introduced by the Senate in 2013 failed to make it through the House of Representatives. However, Atessa Chehrazi, an immigration attorney in San Francisco, California, says that foreign researchers would gain many more opportunities to work in the United States if even targeted provisions of the bill pass, such as a proposal to allow graduate students who arrive on non-immigrant visas to seek permanent resident status. Restrictive employment quotas and visas for scientists and other highly trained workers have come under attack in the past decade. More than a dozen higher-education associations are urging Congress to pass the bill.