House and Senate conferees completed their negotiations on the final version of the FY 2010 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 2892) this afternoon. The final conference report includes three-year extensions for all four immigration programs riding on the bill: EB-5, E-Verify, religious workers, and certain foreign doctors serving medically underserved areas. See page five of the attached press release.

The final three-year compromise emerged after a very contentions internal debate and a nearly successful effort by some members of Congress to eliminate all immigration extenders from the bill. Communications from the EB-5 regional centers to their individual members of Congress and from the entire EB-5 stakeholder community to congressional leadership were an extremely important factor in the decision to include the extensions. Your voices were heard loud and clear!

The three-year time frame was difficult to attain and was the best that our champions could achieve. Though it is not what we had worked and hoped for, it took significant effort on the part of all our supporters in Congress to get this done and we owe them our appreciation. Please thank all the members of Congress you contacted.

The conference version of the bill will now go to the House and Senate for final votes in the next few days and then to President Obama for signature. The final votes are expected to be a formality.

Now on to our next efforts: persuading Congress to enact legislation to improve and clarify various aspects of the EB-5 program, and continuing to work with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to make sure the program runs smoothly. Stay tuned!

Steve Yale-Loehr
Executive Director
Invest In the USA