Grassley, Goodlatte Call on DHS to Finalize EB-5 Regulations, End Unacceptable Status Quo
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley
(R-Iowa) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairmen of the Senate and House
Judiciary Committees, today made the following statement on the failure of
congress to reform the deeply flawed and fraud-ridden EB-5 Visa Regional Center program.
“We, as chairmen of the Senate and House committees of jurisdiction, have been working in good faith with stakeholders for years on a compromise solution to fix the corrupt and fraud-ridden EB-5 regional center program. The program was originally enacted to boost investment in rural and economically distressed areas, but has been hijacked by big city real estate interests.
“Our reforms would have ended this rampant abuse, and would have redirected a portion of the capital the program raised to the most deserving areas in our country, as was Congress’ original intent. More importantly, they would have reduced fraud, and enacted necessary changes to protect our national security. Unfortunately, these reforms have once again been rejected by a small handful of powerful industry interests.
“The status quo means rampant fraud and abuse of this program will continue. It means national security vulnerabilities will persist. And it means that the areas that need and deserve the investment continue to go overlooked.
“Because Congress has failed to reform or end this program, we call on the Department of Homeland Security to expeditiously finalize regulations that would reduce the widespread abuses of the EB-5 program.”
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