As the Sept. 30, 2016, sunset date approaches for the EB-5 Regional Center program, the EB-5 industry has come together with a unified voice calling for the program to be extended with appropriate reforms.  On Sept. 7, 2016, a letter was circulated to the Members of the Judiciary Committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives calling for reauthorization of the EB-5 program, signed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the EB-5 Investment Coalition, Invest in the USA, and The Real Estate Roundtable.   

On Sept. 9, 2016, a draft of an EB-5 bill, titled the “American Job Creation and Investment Promotion Reform Act of 2016,” was circulated to the industry.  On Sept. 12, 2016, the bill, H.R. 5992, was introduced into the second session of the 114^th Congress by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, and a markup of H.R. 5992 was scheduled for Sept. 14, 2016.  Given the short amount of time between the bill’s introduction and the scheduled markup, the EB-5 industry joined together again on Sept. 12, 2016, and sent a letter to the Members of the Judiciary Committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives with a list of concerns over the contents of the bill.  The markup was canceled on Sept. 13, 2016, with no new date set.