Earlier this week, the Senate announced that its amendments to the
Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations bill should be
included in the final version of that bill. The Senate has requested a
conference with representative members of the House of Representatives
to seek a resolution of differences between the House and Senate
versions of the bill.
In preparation, the Senate has announced which Senators will be members
of the conference. The House has not yet announced their conferees.
The House version of the Homeland Security Appropriations
bill passed on June 24 by a vote of 389 to 37. Included in that version
was a two-year reauthorization of the Basic Pilot/E-Verify program.
The Senate version of the bill passed on July 9 by a vote of 84 to 6.
In the Senate bill were a number of immigration-related amendments that
included the following:
An amendment to permanently reauthorize the Basic Pilot/E-Verify
program and require its use by federal contractors and subcontractors.
This amendment also called for the permanent reauthorization of the
EB-5 program.
An amendment that would require that at least 700 miles of fencing be
completed along the southwest border of the United States by the end of
2010.
An amendment that would get rid of the Obama administration’s decision
to rescind the Bush-era rule regarding SSA No-Match letters.
An amendment that would allow employers that use the E-Verify program
to be able to review the employment eligibility of all their employees
and not just new hires.
An amendment that would allow foreign-born widows, children and the
parents of U.S. citizens who have died to keep their legal status to
seek citizenship for two years after the citizen’s death. This
amendment also included a provision to extend the Religious Worker and
Conrad 30 programs for an additional 3 years.
