Bills, Rules & Politics

[aquatican]

lol this bill is like the 'boy who cried wolf' 15 times. i now just ignore the boy.

[idliman]

This time the house rules are different under Pelosi and there's something called a "Consensus Calendar" so this HAS to come up for discussion and there's plenty of time this time since it's the beginning of the 116th congress. In the past this bill was always brought up towards the end but this time that's not the case.

Some positive points:

Plenty of time for the 116th congress to end.
Grassley on board
Consensus calendar (new rules)
30+ co-sponsors in the Senate as well.

So, I'm optimistic but in politics anything can happen.

I would keep an eye on 01OCT19. Then the budget craziness will begin. The chance is from now till OCT for this bill in house. Good Luck!

[idliman]

This time the house rules are different under Pelosi and there's something called a "Consensus Calendar" so this HAS to come up for discussion and there's plenty of time this time since it's the beginning of the 116th congress. In the past this bill was always brought up towards the end but this time that's not the case.

Some positive points:

Plenty of time for the 116th congress to end.
Grassley on board
Consensus calendar (new rules)
30+ co-sponsors in the Senate as well.

So, I'm optimistic but in politics anything can happen.

I am sure some of you know that Rand Paul objected to "unanimous consent" for Fairness bill in Senate. When the bill gets closer to the finish line all the wolves in sheep's clothing will come out and show their true colors. Just keep trying and Just keep fighting.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/...l-blocked.html

[canada]

Agree with Aceman. We are kept in the dark without any information. Enough of analyzing. I don’t belong to Immigration voice or work for them but there are two bills- in Senate S.386 and in the House -H.R. 1044. Call your lawmakers today if you have not done it. I have called my Senator Tim Kaine of my State Virginia. The other Virginian Senator Mark Warner already supports S386 and 9 of my state congressmen support the 1044. This is our last chance and no more wasting time in guessing.

[gs1968]

According to this report the Bill is close to passing
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/20...dian-migrants/

It is unclear if the tactic will work but we will see

[idliman]

According to this report the Bill is close to passing
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/20...dian-migrants/

It is unclear if the tactic will work but we will see

The latest from Bloomberg law.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-...pite-h-1b-deal

One of the key wording from this article is:
Paul is one of several senators—both Republican and Democratic—with a hold on the bill, making its future uncertain. For Democrats, the chief concern is that the bill would reallocate green cards among immigrants of different nationalities without increasing green cards to accommodate all workers seeking one, according to a Democratic aide.

When it comes to immigration, things are very complicated.

[idliman]

Please read the article above. Rand Paul wants an exception for Philipino Nurses. That's why he's "hold"ing this bill. We don't know what the other senators who are "hold"ing the bill want. If we are addressing and opposing Rand Paul it won't be enough. The fact is that there was not even a hearing on this bill in Senate. For this bill to pass, you need to start hearing support from big wigs like Donald Trump, Mitch, Nancy, etc. The goal posts are constantly moving as far as this bill is considered.

[gs1968]

Please read the article above. Rand Paul wants an exception for Philipino Nurses. That's why he's "hold"ing this bill. We don't know what the other senators who are "hold"ing the bill want. If we are addressing and opposing Rand Paul it won't be enough. The fact is that there was not even a hearing on this bill in Senate. For this bill to pass, you need to start hearing support from big wigs like Donald Trump, Mitch, Nancy, etc. The goal posts are constantly moving as far as this bill is considered.

I was surprised to read this article. Laura Francis is a credible reporter and has focused on H-1B and H4 EAD. Bloomberg is generally factual unlike Breitbart which is scaremongering The only issue is the number of anonymous sources in the article but it is possible that she was not allowed to divulge them in exchange for the information. She has been the subject of significant social media abuse today and I don't see a response from her. The Democratic section that opposes this Bill was already described in an article in April.

https://www.ozy.com/politics-and-pow...agree-on/93741

[apniceone]

Seems house bill is scheduled for next week:

https://docs.house.gov/floor/

[qesehmk]

Many of you are quite accomplished, intelligent and rational people. I am amazed why can't you guys see that the status quo works for literally everybody except backlogged candidates.
1) The Corporations - Status quo gives them cheap high quality reliable labor
2) The State Dept - For some reason the DoS is not quite thrilled to see higher level of immigration from India. Perhaps it's the cold war mindset. So status quo works for them.
3) The Lawyers - Backlog creates opportunities to work with Tech companies ... more lucrative option than other industries. Besides they dont want to go against state dept and dhs.
4) The American Public - They are least interested in seeing any immigration increase ... much less Indians the white collar job thieves!
5) The Politicians - They just go with #1 and #4. Some of them also have #2 on mind.

So my friends --- tell me where is the place for any advocacy?

The only thing that may work is "JUSTICE". US is still the land of justice. Go make your case and fight for it based on discrimination. IV deserves the credit for at least trying really really hard. But my friends ... you have wasted years upon years trying to solve this using Advocacy. A decade has gone by.

Now try something else.

[gs1968]

To Canada
It is just the nature of lobbying in the USA. It is a game of continuous cat and mouse. The organizations opposing this legislation also work behind the scenes and keep their cards close to their chest. It is positive that the House Bill has come up for a vote on Wednesday. The strategy has probably been thought out in private but seems to be shifting on a reactive basis. Two weeks ago it was placed on the consensus calendar to be taken up in the fall and suddenly placed on a suspension calendar for this week. It appears like it is the base Bill with no amendments that is being voted on and does not include the Grassley Amendment but other forum members can clarify this.Per House rules no floor amendments can be offered under suspension but the sponsor of the Bill can offer amendments while making the motion to offer the Bill under suspension which I don't think happened in this case. This is not in line with the Bill in the Senate for which the UC was asked for 10 days ago which included the Grassley Amendment and was blocked. This could mean so many things.
1. The House expects quick and decisive movement in the Senate with a one or more additional amendments and returned to the House for concurrence (Best Possible Scenario). However in that case why not wait for the Senate to pass the Bill first and not have the House do it twice? The procedure for unanimous consent and not taking up floor time in the Senate is the same for House and Senate Bills

2. This has been Rep.Lofgren's dream since 2008 and having spent most of the time in the minority since then this would be her first opportunity to move the Bill forward. She has no control over what happens in the Senate and may want to move it out of the House before the summer recess when opposition can mount. The suspension route needs 290 members and if 21 congressmen change their mind this route may no longer be available. Very unlikely and I really feel that the final vote tally will be a lot more favorable

3.The push may also be because of the effective date of the Bill which is October 2019

4. Maybe apply pressure in the Senate on all the people who are holding this up. The senate has made numerous attempts to clean up the Hold process but a lot of these are still being done informally
This from a CRS report a few years ago

"A second challenge to hold regulation involves the nature of the transmission itself. Both recent proposals address a particular kind of communication: a letter written and delivered to a Senator’s party leader that expresses some kind of reservation about the timing or merits of a particular proposal or nomination. Hold requests might be conveyed in less formal ways as well; in a telephone call to the leader’s office, for instance, or in a verbal exchange that occurs on or off the Senate floor. An objection to a unanimous consent request transmitted through the “hotline” represents another common method of communicating preferences to Senate leaders.18Some Senate offices have circulated “Dear Colleague” letters specifying certain requirements legislation must adhere to in order to avoid a hold being placed. It remains unclear, however, whether or not these alternative forms of communication fall within the purview of recent hold reforms"

The Bloomberg report says that there are additional holds and while this may very well be true there is no way of confirming this. There are numerous Bills on Hold but the senate legislative calendar only lists one item. Sometimes only the lead sponsor or the chairman of the affected committee knows who these holds are. See an example below

https://www.rollcall.com/news/congre...n-holds-senate

Interestingly it was mentioned that Sen.Lee was one of the holds of the retirement Bill above according to Politico but could not be confirmed

We will wait and see

[canada]

To Canada
It is just the nature of lobbying in the USA. It is a game of continuous cat and mouse. The organizations opposing this legislation also work behind the scenes and keep their cards close to their chest. It is positive that the House Bill has come up for a vote on Wednesday. The strategy has probably been thought out in private but seems to be shifting on a reactive basis. Two weeks ago it was placed on the consensus calendar to be taken up in the fall and suddenly placed on a suspension calendar for this week. It appears like it is the base Bill with no amendments that is being voted on and does not include the Grassley Amendment but other forum members can clarify this.Per House rules no floor amendments can be offered under suspension but the sponsor of the Bill can offer amendments while making the motion to offer the Bill under suspension which I don't think happened in this case. This is not in line with the Bill in the Senate for which the UC was asked for 10 days ago which included the Grassley Amendment and was blocked. This could mean so many things.
1. The House expects quick and decisive movement in the Senate with a one or more additional amendments and returned to the House for concurrence (Best Possible Scenario). However in that case why not wait for the Senate to pass the Bill first and not have the House do it twice? The procedure for unanimous consent and not taking up floor time in the Senate is the same for House and Senate Bills

2. This has been Rep.Lofgren's dream since 2008 and having spent most of the time in the minority since then this would be her first opportunity to move the Bill forward. She has no control over what happens in the Senate and may want to move it out of the House before the summer recess when opposition can mount. The suspension route needs 290 members and if 21 congressmen change their mind this route may no longer be available. Very unlikely and I really feel that the final vote tally will be a lot more favorable

3.The push may also be because of the effective date of the Bill which is October 2019

4. Maybe apply pressure in the Senate on all the people who are holding this up. The senate has made numerous attempts to clean up the Hold process but a lot of these are still being done informally
This from a CRS report a few years ago

"A second challenge to hold regulation involves the nature of the transmission itself. Both recent proposals address a particular kind of communication: a letter written and delivered to a Senator’s party leader that expresses some kind of reservation about the timing or merits of a particular proposal or nomination. Hold requests might be conveyed in less formal ways as well; in a telephone call to the leader’s office, for instance, or in a verbal exchange that occurs on or off the Senate floor. An objection to a unanimous consent request transmitted through the “hotline” represents another common method of communicating preferences to Senate leaders.18Some Senate offices have circulated “Dear Colleague” letters specifying certain requirements legislation must adhere to in order to avoid a hold being placed. It remains unclear, however, whether or not these alternative forms of communication fall within the purview of recent hold reforms"

The Bloomberg report says that there are additional holds and while this may very well be true there is no way of confirming this. There are numerous Bills on Hold but the senate legislative calendar only lists one item. Sometimes only the lead sponsor or the chairman of the affected committee knows who these holds are. See an example below

https://www.rollcall.com/news/congre...n-holds-senate

Interestingly it was mentioned that Sen.Lee was one of the holds of the retirement Bill above according to Politico but could not be confirmed

We will wait and see

We are the recipients of most number of H1Bs and have highest income by race, country in US but still cannot pay for lobbying or raising awareness to these decades of uncertainty— that is a real shame on us - Indians... we should have spent more money on lobbying rather than negative passing comments against IV. I did send some money to them with the hope it may workout.

A neighbor of mine working in US along with his wife lost jobs- in the same company- both US born kids and wife left to India while the husband is searching for a job... put the house on sale, sold all the furniture... I have job security as I am in medical field but it’s heartbreaking to see such an incident happen... they waited in the queue for 10 years so far with 2012 PD - EB2. Why should this uncertainty continue in your lives?

[gs1968]

To Canada
Totally agree. Unfortunately Congress is still grappling with laws created in 1990 and an extreme reluctance to raise annual green card limits. If there was an easier fix it would have happened by now. Average generation length is 33 years and we are almost there by now. In FY 2017 EB categories were 12% of total immigration and was less than the refugee/asylee numbers. In 2017 the total births were 3,855,500 and deaths were 2,813,503 and the natural increase in population was only 1,041,997 and was the lowest increase recorded. Also the births are coming down and deaths are climbing due to the baby boomer generation aging. The birth rate may rebound but it is not far off the all time high of 4.3 million in 2007. Our neighbors to the north have already realized this and accelerated their immigration program.In 2018 the total Canadian births were 385,777 and the deaths were 279,936 with only a natural increase of 105,841 in a country of 33 million.Our lawmaking is not as nimble to do this and we are stuck with quotas from 29 years ago.
To add more context to this- when the original quotas were decided in 1990 the 140000 number was 0.0006% of the population then of 248 million. The 140000 today represents 0.0004% of the population of 330 million. With every passing year the percentage diminishes and Congress could easily double the annual number and all grievances would be taken care of. But every politician who has championed country caps elimination (Chaffetz,Lamar Smith,Lee) have done so strongly insisting that the only reason they support it is because it does not increase annual GCs.
I apologize for all the statistical noise but demography is destiny and our leadership is unfortunately not far-sighted at this point

[canada]

To Canada
Totally agree. Unfortunately Congress is still grappling with laws created in 1990 and an extreme reluctance to raise annual green card limits. If there was an easier fix it would have happened by now. Average generation length is 33 years and we are almost there by now. In FY 2017 EB categories were 12% of total immigration and was less than the refugee/asylee numbers. In 2017 the total births were 3,855,500 and deaths were 2,813,503 and the natural increase in population was only 1,041,997 and was the lowest increase recorded. Also the births are coming down and deaths are climbing due to the baby boomer generation aging. The birth rate may rebound but it is not far off the all time high of 4.3 million in 2007. Our neighbors to the north have already realized this and accelerated their immigration program.In 2018 the total Canadian births were 385,777 and the deaths were 279,936 with only a natural increase of 105,841 in a country of 33 million.Our lawmaking is not as nimble to do this and we are stuck with quotas from 29 years ago.
To add more context to this- when the original quotas were decided in 1990 the 140000 number was 0.0006% of the population then of 248 million. The 140000 today represents 0.0004% of the population of 330 million. With every passing year the percentage diminishes and Congress could easily double the annual number and all grievances would be taken care of. But every politician who has championed country caps elimination (Chaffetz,Lamar Smith,Lee) have done so strongly insisting that the only reason they support it is because it does not increase annual GCs.
I apologize for all the statistical noise but demography is destiny and our leadership is unfortunately not far-sighted at this point

You don’t have to apologize for the figures you mentioned but it actually helped me ( hopefully foe others who are not aware of) understand that it’s the lawmakers in Congress who needs to understand how less these immigration figures compared to the total population. Thanks for writing. I called Rand Paul office today and also called my state senator Tim Kaine’s office requesting for the feedback from him as I have not heard from their office since the last week( I was promised that I would hear from them by the end of th day and they don’t call me I will call back tomorrow)

I worked in England( 2010) didn’t take the permanent residence- my mistake, got Canadian PR( July 2015) didn’t move there hoping my August 2009 dates will be current by now. Visa free Travel, freedom from working full time to a particular employer is what I am looking for.

[GCkaLADDU]

I don't know why people think its going on floor today. Its planned for tomorrow per the house calendar here:

https://www.majorityleader.gov/conte...ay-july-5-2019

[smuggymba]

We are the recipients of most number of H1Bs and have highest income by race, country in US but still cannot pay for lobbying or raising awareness to these decades of uncertainty— that is a real shame on us - Indians... we should have spent more money on lobbying rather than negative passing comments against IV. I did send some money to them with the hope it may workout.

A neighbor of mine working in US along with his wife lost jobs- in the same company- both US born kids and wife left to India while the husband is searching for a job... put the house on sale, sold all the furniture... I have job security as I am in medical field but it’s heartbreaking to see such an incident happen... they waited in the queue for 10 years so far with 2012 PD - EB2. Why should this uncertainty continue in your lives?

I hope the bill passes today in the house but learned a lot from this over the last 3-4 days of talking about this bill with friends and colleagues who are directly impacted.

My friends who have been waiting for over 10 years with their wives on H4, won't even call the congressman's office, forget about donating 25 or 50 dollars. They say - nothing will happen, we have to suffer, we can't do anything. At every dinner party, they are crying about this injustice

It's blows my mind, why can't someone pick up the phone and make a FREE call which took me 45 seconds to do. No wonder we were ruled by the British, Indians in general (majority) are laid back and don't really want to do anything with a subservient mindset, forget about donating 25 dollars. Some, on the other hand want to make a difference but they are a small number and in immigration NUMBERS count, which we don't have.

The illegals, nurses, gas station employees can raise more money/resources and generate more impact then us high earning individuals.

[idliman]

House Floor Activities
Legislative Day of July 10, 2019
2:51:37 P.M. H.R. 1044 Ms. Lofgren moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended. H.R. 1044 — "To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants, to increase the per-country numerical limitation for family-sponsored immigrants, and for other purposes."
2:51:45 P.M. H.R. 1044 Considered under suspension of the rules.
2:51:46 P.M. H.R. 1044 DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 1044.
3:24:54 P.M. H.R. 1044 At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.

Looks like H.R. 1044 will easily pass the required number of 290 yea votes. While this doesn't mean anything without senate action, at least it will give some good vibes.

[mcmilers]

what are the next steps if the bill passes? will it even make it to the senate floor?

[GCkaLADDU]

what are the next steps if the bill passes? will it even make it to the senate floor?

The bill has passed the house.

[mcmilers]

yes. Wondering whats next. does it even have a future in the Senate?

[GCkaLADDU]

Well. Senate would be a slippery ride provided Mitch even allows a vote.

However

"This will be the first time the bill has made it through either house of Congress since 2011 - Laura D. Francis@Twitter"
‏

[smuggymba]

Well. Senate would be a slippery ride provided Mitch even allows a vote.

However

"This will be the first time the bill has made it through either house of Congress since 2011 - Laura D. Francis@Twitter"
‏

Senate will be tricky but at least we got passed the first hurdle.

I do agree with Q, if we fail this time, the only option is Judiciary.

BTW, does anyone know about the chinese lawsuit related to EB category; what happened to that?

[bluelabel]

BTW, does anyone know about the chinese lawsuit related to EB category; what happened to that?

https://cis.org/North/USCIS-Wins-Big-EB5-Court-Case

[imdeng]

So this just happened: https://www.cato.org/blog/sen-pauls-...hout-tradeoffs

Its a dream bill. Have no idea what the chances of it becoming law ever is (I would assume very very low) - but still encouraging to see this coming from Rand Paul after his recent hold on the Senate bill removing country caps.

[Raj0687]

If your state senator is not cosponsored S.386 yet, please consider calling or emailing.

https://www.senate.gov/senators/How_...d_senators.htm