Immigration Debate Begins: Prospects For EB-5 Reform & Reauthorization

Congress nearly averted a shutdown last week, but just missed the mark when Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) temporarily blocked Senate passage of the fifth – and supposedly final — continuing resolution (CR) of this fiscal year temporarily extending current-level funding for federal activities until March 23, and lifting for Fiscal Year 2018 and Fiscal Year 2019 the spending caps established in the Budget Control Act of 2011. Senator Paul gave a barnstormer of a speech criticizing the increased spending levels and their impact on the deficit. Ending what was perhaps one of – if not the – shortest government shutdowns in history, the Senate approved the CR in the early hours of February 9, followed several hours later by the House of Representatives. With passage of the new two year budget (with increased spending levels for both defense and non-defense) and another short-term CR, congressional appropriators will spend the next several weeks leading up to the March 23 deadline