Immigration Matters Two Immigration Bills, on H-1B and EB-5, Stalled in the House Committee

U.S. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking
Member John Conyers, Jr.

A postponed markup, or floor vote, usually means that the leadership is having trouble rounding up the votes needed to move along the proposed legislation; such delays sometimes lead to revisions in the proposed bills that are substantive enough to secure the needed backing. This probably is what is happening with these two bills, but there may be other factors as well.

EB-5. As we reported earlier this week, HR 5992 called for much more restricted use of investors' money in the future, targeting it to depressed areas, rural and urban. The language of the bill was such that one industry commentator wrote that it would effectively terminate the use of EB-5 moneys in downtown urban areas.

Critics of the program have long pointed out that too much of the EB-5 money was going into luxury real estate projects in glitzy downtown areas of New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Miami, when the intent of the original legislation was to use the aliens' money to prop up the economy in distressed locations. The authors of the reform bill, Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.), saw to it that the areas where these projects can be built, called Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs), were defined more narrowly.

http://www.oyetimes.com/lifestyle/immigration/98527-two-immigration-bills-on-h-1b-and-eb-5-stalled-in-the-house-committee

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