The first hearing of the second session of the 114th Congress on the topic of EB-5 was held in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 2, 2016. Witnesses included Nicholas Colucci, Chief, Office of Immigrant Investor Program, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Stephen L. Cohen, Associate Director, Division of Enforcement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Their testimony can be found here.
The hearing was well attended, with eleven Judiciary Committee members participating. Issues of program reform and program integrity topped the agenda. S.2415, the EB-5 Integrity Act, was discussed, as were other programmatic reform efforts including S.1501, the American Job Creation and Investment Promotion Reform Act of 2015. Mr. Colucci testified that regulations from his agency would be forthcoming on some key issues including possible revisions to the way in which the agency evaluates targeted employment area (TEA) designations. The EB-5 Investment Coalition released a statement in relation to the hearing.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on EB-5 reform on Feb. 11, 2016, at 10:15 am EST.