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Author: Sarah Castro

Reviewed 9/22

Senate Introduces Two Immigration Bills

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Two bills focusing on immigration were introduced today in the Senate, the Startup Act and the I-Squared bill. Both are designed to address STEM and high tech needs to encourage high-skilled immigrants remain in the US.

The Start Up Act

Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Mark Warner (D-VA) reintroduced the Startup Act today. The bill, which has been introduced three times before, is a high-skilled immigration plan that aims to encourage startup growth through a series of tax and immigration policy changes. Among other things, the legislation includes STEM visas for US-educated foreign students, makes permanent an exemption of capital gains taxes on the sale of certain startup stock, and eliminates the per-country caps for employment-based immigration visas.

Read more about the legislation here.

I-Squared

A bipartisan group of Senators on January 13 introduced legislation aimed at expanding the ability of high-skilled workers to live and work in the United States. The Immigration Innovation (“I-Squared”) Act of 2015 would increase the number of employment-based nonimmigrant (H-1B) visas and broaden access to green cards for high-skilled workers by expanding exemptions and eliminating the annual per-country limits.

The I-Squared Act includes the following provisions of specific interest to universities:

— Uncapping the existing U.S. advanced degree exemption for H-1B visas (currently limited to 20,000 per year);

— Allowing dual intent for foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities;

— Exempting U.S. STEM advanced degree holders and outstanding professors and researchers from the employment-based green card cap (note: I-Squared uses the Department of Homeland Security definition of qualified STEM fields); and

— Reforming fees on H-1B visas and employment-based green cards and directing the revenue to fund a grant program to promote STEM education and worker retraining to be administered by the states.

 

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor these and other bills related to high-skilled immigration efforts throughout the 114th Congress.

 

House Passes DHS Appropriations and Raises Immigration Stakes

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The House adjourned yesterday for the annual Republican retreat. But before they left, the House took steps to block major provisions of the president’s immigration policy announced in November of 2014. As an amendment to legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for FY15, the House passed a series of amendments effectively blocking Obama’s executive action to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.

The underlying DHS funding bill passed by a vote of 236-191. The House also voted on a series of amendments meant to roll back Obama’s executive actions on immigration, including a controversial measure by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that would kill the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. That amendment narrowly passed by a vote of 218-209.

At the conclusion of the 113th Congress, the House and Senate passed all FY15 appropriations bills but for the FY15 DHS appropriations bill in an effort to neutralize the President’s Executive Order. The FY15 DHS appropriations were put on a continuing resolution until February 28, 2015. The decision to not fully fund DHS is due in large part to the House attempted to respond in 2014, but the effort was not taken up by the Senate.

Earlier in the week, the White House had threatened to veto any legislation which negated his immigration policy, but the White House seems open to including some symbolic GOP immigration measure – although it’s unclear just how much they are willing to give.

Without new funding for the DHS, agencies such as FEMA would be prevented from distributing emergency grants to state and local governments in need in the case of a local, regional, or national disaster.

The package as passed by the House is unlikely to be taken up by the now Republican-controlled Senate. It is highly unlikely that the bill will get the 60 votes needed for cloture since the Republicans do not have a cloture-proof majority. The Senate Republicans are currently working on alternatives.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to track this issue as it evolves.

 

What We’re Reading, January 12th

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Here’s a selection of articles that we are reading this week.

Real Power – With Republicans having a veto-proof majority in neither the House nor the Senate, a rare breed of politician:  moderate Democrats will become one of the most powerful players in the new Congress. This group will have the ability to help the Republicans accomplish their agenda. Read about it at The Washington Post. As a follow up, read about the veto battles that will start kicking off this week with  the Keystone pipeline. Read more at The Hill.

Universities Dealing with Fraudulent HR Scam – The FBI has noticed and advised of a recent internet scam where employees receive an email from the HR departments indicating a change in their employment status. The emails encourage them to log in to a site similar to the HR site, where the scammers steal credentials and redirect checks, among other things. Read about it from the FBI.

GOP Is not Against Science – Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) had an op-ed published this week that outlines why the Republican part is not against science, but pro-useful spending of tax dollars. Read it at Politico.

Legacy Building – Looking at the last two years of his Presidency, Obama has made some powerful strides and has arguably done more in the policy arena than many of his predecessors, but how will history judge him? Read an analysis from New York Magazine.

French Kiss Off – President Obama and other senior administration officials were conspicuously absent from the march in Paris following their series of standoffs and shootings. Forty-four heads of state went to Paris this weekend to participate in the protest against terror. Only Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris, for another event, and didn’t participate in the rally. Read more about the fallout here.

Cyber Insurance – As companies and industries become more aware of their network vulnerabilities the cyber insurance industry is booming. After every high profile attack, Sony being the most recent example, the cyber insurance industry experiences a huge increase, and it’s an industry that’s growing between 35-50% annually already. With every attack, companies are exposed to huge liabilities both financial, like the Experian breach, or losses that are hard to quantify, like the Sony breach. Read about it at The Hill.

A YEAR’S WORTH OF DEADLINES – This week, the Federal Register lists deadlines for colleges and universities applying for the Perkins loan program, work-study programs or the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant. Read it here.

THE EFFECT OF GEAR UP: ACT is out with a new report on the effectiveness of the GEAR UP program, which provides six-year grants to states and partnerships to boost the number of students who enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Students who participated in a GEAR UP program run by the College and Career Readiness Evaluation Consortium were less likely than non-GEAR UP students from higher income backgrounds to pursue college preparatory courses in high school. But they were more likely to do so than their low-income peers not served by GEAR UP. ACT is using the study as a baseline for estimating the effect of GEAR UP on lower-income students in grades 7 through 12. The CCREC, by the way, is a partnership between 14 states, ACT and the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships. Read the ACT report here.

What We’re Reading, January 5th — Part 2

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Here’s a selection of articles that the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

International Optimism? – The international community is cautiously optimistic that the 114th Congress will be more productive that the 113th…at least a little more productive…hopefully. Read it in The Economist.

Problem Before It Starts – A national college rating system is facing tough criticism before the draft framework has been announced. First announced by the President in 2013 as an accountability measure, both for profit and nonprofit institutes expressed concern with the idea. The framework has taken over 15 months of discussion and there is still no public plan.  Most non-profit colleges are concerned, not about rankings showing value, but about unintended consequences from the rankings. Read more at the LA Times. 

Toot, toot – Obama Administration touts their accomplishments for 2014. Read it here.

Game On! – Adding to the may-lay of the 2016 elections (which only was going to be a presidential election, the House of Representatives, and the re-election of 20 Republican Senators in Democratic states), US Senate liberal institution, Senator Barbara Boxer, announced her retirement at the end of 2016. Boxer was first elected to the US House in 1983 and the US Senate in 1992. California has not seen an open Senate seat since 1992, when George H.W. Bush was president. This race is expected to be one of the most expensive, due to the make up of California, and contentious, due to the deep bench of Democrats expected to vie for the seat.  Read more about it from The LA Times and The Washington Post.

White House Proposes Two Years of Free Community College

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In advance of his State of the Union address, President Obama is traveling to Tennessee today to announce one of his keystones of his 2015 agenda: two free years of community college.  The proposal, called America’s College Promise, is based on Republican Governor Bill Haslam, who developed and launched Tennessee Promise, which begins this year. Tennessee Promise allows any high school graduate in that state is eligible for two years of free community college tuition under the Tennessee Promise. The President’s announcement is expected to be a cornerstone of his FY16 Budget Request.

The Administration’s proposal would make community college free for any student who enrolls at least part-time and maintains a 2.5 grade point average. The plan would allow anyone admitted to a community college to attend without paying tuition, so long as they enroll in a program meeting certain basic requirements, and they remain on track to graduate in three years.Qualifying programs would be one of  two types: it would had credits that fully transfer to local public four-year colleges and universities or it would consist of training programs with high graduation rates that lead to in-demand degrees and certificates. All community college students, including those first entering community college or those going back to school, would be eligible for the program.

The White House estimates that approximately 9 million students would participate a year.

Any state participating would have to maintain funding for all higher education as well as pay 25% of the total cost. It is estimated the program could cost upwards of $15 billion per year. It is unclear how it would be paid for, but that information is expected to be made clear in the President’s Budget Request for FY16 on February 2.

Typically, the President would do these visits to promote new initiatives after the State of the Union and before the release of the President’s Budget Request. However, the President will be making a state visit to India after the State of the Union, and so promotion for big initiates is happening now in what the Administration is calling a Spoiler Alerts.

The President is expected to formally announce the America’a College Promise at 1 pm Eastern. In addition to Governor Haslam, the President will be joined by both of Tennessee’s Republican Senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander. Senator Alexander is the Chairman of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee.  Watch the announcement live here.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to track and update information on this initiative as it becomes available.