Congress won't renew higher cap on H1-B foreign workers.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: T. Shawn Taylor

The number of new foreign workers allowed to enter the country will be sharply limited in the coming year, as Congress declined to renew a higher annual cap it set for a controversial visa program at the height of the technology boom.

Known as the H1-B visa, the program allows employers to hire foreign workers with special skills they can't find among American job applicants. But on Wednesday, the annual limit on new H1-B visas automatically rolled back to 65,000 _ a cap set in 1990.

As the economy boomed during the late 1990s, Congress raised the cap to 115,000 and eventually to 195,000 in 2000 at the request of the business …