President Trump’s team has floated the idea of ending a program that lets hundreds of thousands of international students work in the United States after they graduate. In response, a bipartisan duo from California introduced a bill to make that program permanent.

What is OPT and who wants to save it

Optional Practical Training, or OPT, is a program that lets students on F-1 visas work in the United States for about 12 months after finishing school. Students in certain science, technology, engineering, and math fields can get extra time through STEM extensions. Over the years those STEM extensions have been expanded repeatedly, and the program has grown into a key bridge between student visas and longer-term work visas like the H-1B.

The new bill

Reps. Sam Liccardo and Jay Obernolte introduced legislation to codify OPT into federal law so the program cannot be undone by regulation or administrative action. Their pitch is simple: lock it into statute so future administrations cannot erase it on a whim.

How widely used is OPT?

  • Between 2006 and 2022, about 56 percent of students on F-1 visas enrolled in OPT, according to research cited by the bill’s backers.
  • In 2024, the Department of Homeland Security reported that 165,524 students were participating in STEM OPT alone.
  • Participation is especially high for advanced degrees: roughly 76 percent of STEM PhD graduates used OPT.

How OPT came to be and why it is vulnerable

OPT was created in 1992 by the George H. W. Bush administration under rules issued by the agency that preceded today’s DHS. It was never written into law by Congress. Instead, it exists under agency regulations that administrations can change. Over time both Republican and Democratic administrations expanded OPT, particularly for STEM students.

Because the program lives in regulation rather than statute, it is exposed whenever an administration wants to change immigration policy. That vulnerability is exactly what the bill by Liccardo and Obernolte aims to fix.

Legal fights and political pressure

OPT has not been free of controversy. In 2014 a labor group sued the Department of Homeland Security after a STEM extension was added, arguing it harmed American workers. Many colleges warned in court filings that ending OPT would make it much harder for U.S. schools to compete for international students.

This year the issue got more urgent. During his confirmation hearing in May 2025, the administration’s nominee to run the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said he wanted to end OPT, calling the program "mishandled" and saying he supported removing the work authorizations many international graduates receive.

Advocates for stricter immigration limits, including some right-leaning think tanks, have long argued OPT reduces wages. The administration has also taken other immigration steps that signal a more restrictive approach, such as raising fees for H-1B visas dramatically and imposing travel restrictions on nationals from a number of countries.

Why lawmakers pushing the bill say it matters

The bill’s supporters argue that American employers and the U.S. economy benefit when graduates trained at U.S. schools can stay and work here. As one sponsor put it, the alternative is educating talented people and then sending them home where they may build companies that compete with U.S. firms.

Bottom line

The proposed law is a straightforward attempt to turn a decades-old regulatory program into a statutory protection. If Congress acts, OPT would be harder for any administration to eliminate. If Congress does not act, the program remains exposed to future regulatory changes, litigation, and shifts in administration policy.