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House Adopts Measure Extending E-Verify and Three Other
Expiring Immigration Programs
By Micheal E. Hill
September 25, 2009 - 12:40 pm
 The full House of Representatives today adopted a measure that would provide a short-term extension of the controversial E-Verify program. The House-passed measure also would extend the EB-5 Investor Visa Regional Center, Special Immigrant Non-Minister Religious Worker Visa, and Conrad 30 State J-1 Visa programs. Authority for each of the four expiring programs will end at midnight on October 1, 2009, unless the Senate agrees to and the President signs the measure in the coming days.
Today's House action occurred in connection with the conference report accompanying H.R. 2918, the Fiscal Year 2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill. House and Senate conferees met on Thursday, September 24, 2009, to put the finishing touches on the conference report. At the request of the House and Senate Democratic Leadership, the conferees added a new division to the report consisting of a continuing appropriations resolution that would fund the activities of most of the federal government for the first weeks of fiscal year 2010. The provisions extending the four expiring immigration programs are found in Division B, or the continuing appropriations Division, of the conference report.
The House adopted the conference report by a vote of 217-190. The Senate is expected to take up the conference report next week.
Debate on the conference report accompanying H.R. 2918 was spirited, with Republicans complaining about the procedure. However the House adopted the report on a more-or-less partisan vote, with 27 Democrats defecting and voting no.
The decision by appropriators to include extensions of all four expiring immigration programs is a victory for advocates for the Special Immigrant Religious Worker Visa and the Conrad 30 State J-1 Visa programs, in particular. In previous years, continuing appropriations resolutions have extended the E-Verify and EB-5 Investor Regional Center programs. However, they have not extended the Religious Worker and Conrad programs, leaving advocates for those two programs to scramble to win short-term extensions.
The Coast Is Still Not Clear
While the appropriators' decision to include extensions of the four expiring immigration programs in the appropriations package represents a victory for advocates for the four programs, it does not mean that those advocates can rest on their laurels. The decision may mean that the Senate Democratic Leadership will need to secure 60 votes for the agreement in order to overcome a point of order that lies against it. The point of order -- that any senator could raise -- is that the package violates Senate rules precluding the inclusion of matter in a conference agreement that was in neither the House-passed nor the Senate-passed versions of a bill.
Presumably, the Senate Democratic Leadership has calculated that a sufficient number of the opponents to parts of the total package will vote for it anyway in order to prevent a government shutdown.
Longterm Fate to be Decided in Homeland Security Appropriations Bill
Both houses of Congress have approved extensions of one or more of the four expiring programs as part of their respective chambers' versions of H.R. 2892, the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. However, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) has said that Congress will not be able to resolve all of the differences between the
House-passed and Senate-passed versions of the measure until after next week.
The House and Senate addressed all four of the expiring immigration programs in their respective versions of the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. However, each chamber produced differing provisions on the four programs. For instance, the House-passed version of the bill would extend the E-Verify program for two years. However, it did not address the EB-5 Regional Center, Special Immigrant Non-Minister Religious Worker, and Conrad State 30 J-1 Visa Waiver programs.
The Senate-passed bill, on the other hand, would permanently authorize the E-Verify System and the EB-5 Regional Center Programs, and it would extend the Special Immigrant Non-Minister Religious Worker and Conrad State 30 J-1 Visa Waiver programs for three years.
Click Here to see the official text of H. Rept. 111-265, the conference report accompanying H.R. 2918
Click Here to see a section-by-section summary of Division B of the conference report accompanying, H.R. 2918
Click Here to see a more general summary of H. Rept. 111-265
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