WASHINGTON, DC—It's been about week since the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee circulated a discussion draft on potential legislation that would renew the EB-5 program's statutory authority.
To recap, legislation based on the draft would exclude Downtown business districts in the larger US cities from qualifying as targeted employment areas, thus making them ineligible for the lower-tier investment level.
It favors rural areas and cities that have less-dense population centers.
Fast forward one week and there has been a lot of talk about the draft among the industry with no one particular consensus reached. That is not surprising, EB-5 has been controversial for many reasons, including the resentment from rural areas over the program's perceived imbalance.
"A lot of groups have been reacting to the discussion draft," Jeff DeBoer, CEO of The Real Estate Roundtable tells GlobeSt.com.
"Our coalition is about to provide detailed comments to the negotiators," he says.
The conversation is not a two-way one, it appears. Congress isn't saying whether it will use the language from the draft .
The EB-5 Coalition, of which the Roundtable is a member, is also thinking about other scenarios. The legislation is scheduled to expire on Dec. 11. It has sent a letter to Congress asking it, in the event that consensus cannot be reached on a comprehensive EB-5 reform package, the program could be extended with "integrity measures" to "safeguard national security and deter risks of investor fraud."
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
