LOS ANGELES—An EB-5 conference held here earlier this week focused on the importance of keeping the financing program a priority for lawmakers after they return from recess and before its expiration on September 30. The conference, hosted by EB-5 Investors magazine and featuring a keynote address by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, brought together lawyers, worldwide investors and developers who each have a stake in the program's continuation.  

According to the website EB5coalition.org, the EB-5 Investment Coalition (EB-5IC) is “a broad-based, bipartisan organization of businesses, industry leaders, trade associations and elected officials mobilizing around the shared mission of putting Americans to work by reauthorizing and strengthening the critical EB-5 Regional Center Program.” In fact, employment is a key goal of the program, and its proponents tell GlobeSt.com if the program is allowed to expire, job creation is in danger.

“Folks are very concerned and anxious about making sure the program gets the attention it needs from Congress before it expires,” Laura Reiff, an attorney with law firm Greenberg Traurig in the Washington, DC, area, executive director for the EB-5 Investment Coalition and a panelist at the event, tells GlobeSt.com exclusively. Hopefully, something will happen in September when they get back from recess.”

Jeffrey DeBoer, president and CEO of the Real Estate Roundtable, who also spoke at the event, tells GlobeSt.com exclusively, “What Chairman Goodlatte says about this program carries a great deal of weight. He was positive about it and talked about the economic benefits. In 2013, 32,000 jobs were created from the program, and there's been roughly $5 billion raised in the last few years for a variety of activities throughout the program including infrastructure and energy activities. A variety of economic businesses have used this funding source, and he talked about that. But with the limited number of legislative days—the House is now in recess and the Senate is working on other issues—they don't come back to work together again until early September, and there's a rush to get everything to get everything done by September 30.”

Reiff says Goodlatte recognized that there are three other related programs expiring at the same time as the EB-5 program: E-Verify, a voluntary employment-eligibility program that has been reauthorized from 1986; a religious-workers program; and a program for rural doctors in medically underserved areas. Routinely, these four programs have all been extended together, so Reiff says there is hope that the weight of all four programs will help keep them top of mind for Congress. She adds that if the program did expire, it would be devastating to investors.

At the conference, DeBoer says, “there was both optimism and the reality of the short number of days that exist to save the EB-5 program. People talked about the need to talk to legislators to make everyone in Washington aware that this program is important to jobs. We're optimistic that Congress will act, but there's a dose of realism that other priorities and issues can come up. Washington needs to continue to hear the message about the formation of jobs and capital formation to make sure it doesn't slip into a lower priority.”