Trade & International Affairs

Read about DHS’s Final EB-5 Regulations that will take effect on November 21, 2019, including a new standard minimum investment amount of $1.8 million.

With Labor Day now behind us, Washington returns to a fairly significant workload for September and October in the run-up to the midterm elections in November. The House is in session for the next two weeks before returning home for a state work period (Sept. 17-21). Theoretically, they will then return to DC for three weeks—through October 12—but there's a good chance they will adjourn before that date so that members can campaign in their districts. Although not exhaustive, the following is ML Strategies’ guide on what to watch over the next few months from Capitol Hill and the Executive Branch agencies. While all issues addressed in this update may not be completed before the midterms, we anticipate that they will take up the bulk of the legislative and regulatory agenda. With that said, the Senate has taken up the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court and that process has the potential to impact the agenda on other items. With that said, the Senate has taken up the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court, and that process has the potential to impact the agenda on other items. We expect the Senate, which remained in session throughout its normal recess period in August, will likely continue to focus on Judicial and Executive branch nominations.

Congress has continued its 57-year tradition of passing an annual defense authorization bill with the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019 finalized by Congress on August 1 and signed into law by President Trump on August 13. The NDAA makes important reforms and updates to the process by which investments in U.S. businesses by foreign persons are reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and updates and codifies Department of Commerce practices related to export controls.

Google’s recent changes to its privacy policy are coming under fire from a complaint filed late last year with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) that accuses the company of downplaying “transformational change” in its handling of user data. 

Coinciding with the end of the current fiscal year, the EB-5 regional center program is set to expire today but will get a temporary reprieve with expected final passage of a Continuing Resolution (CR) that will fund the government through December 11 and also temporarily extend the regional center program through that same date.  

Coinciding with the end of the government's fiscal year, the EB-5 regional center program is set to expire today. However, it will get a temporary reprieve with expected final passage of a Continuing Resolution (CR) that will fund the government through December 11 and also temporarily extend the regional center program through that same date.

An alert by Douglas Hauer, Member, Alexander Hecht, ML Strategies - Vice President of Government Relations, and R. Neal Martin, ML Strategies - Senior Manager of Government Relations, details proposed legislative reforms to the Immigrant Investor Program, more commonly known as the "EB-5 Program."

Created by the Immigration Act of 1990, the Immigrant Investor Program, more commonly referred to as the EB-5 program, offers foreign investors an opportunity to secure permanent residency in the United States by making a minimum capital investment of $1 million per investor into a New Commercial Enterprise (NCE) that will create at least 10 jobs for US workers.

In response to a number of foreign policy crises encountered over the past few years, the Obama Administration has sought a new and more aggressive approach to using sanctions to advance US global security goals.