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Day 3: Markup of Senate Gang of 8 Immigration Bill

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Blogging Day 3 of the markup:

1:07 PM: the following is a press release from the Alliance 4 Citizenship on Sen. Al Franken’s E-Verify amendment for business owners:

Sen. Al Franken’s E-Verify Amendment Lightens Burden on Small Business Owners

Small Business Owner Reacts to Franken’s Move to Increase Protections for Employers and Employees

Today, Senator Al Franken moved to enhance the accuracy of the E-Verify system, which was accepted by his colleagues in a bipartisan vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. In response to this accepted amendment ReShonda Young, Corporate Vice President of Alpha Express, Inc, a family-owned local, regional and national delivery service based in Waterloo, Iowa, offered the following statement:

We want to do everything we can to comply with the law, but running a small business, we only have so much time, energy and staff to dedicate to hiring, verifying work authorization, and dealing with system errors. Senator Franken’s amendment will give financial incentives to the Department of Homeland Security to make the E-Verify program more accurate and alleviate burdens on small business owners. If Congress plans to make E-Verify mandatory, this is a critical step to ensure the system is accurate, minimize unnecessary workforce disruptions, and allow small businesses to keep our focus where it should be – on building our businesses and creating jobs.

Ms. Young also serves on the national executive committee of the Main Street Alliance small business network.

 

11:28 AM: the following is a press statement from the Senate Judiciary Committee Majority Staff on today’s bill amendments on business and the economy.

Promoting America’s Entrepreneurial Spirit – #CIRmarkup

In today’s markup, the Judiciary Committee unanimously approved two amendments to reinforce the entrepreneurial spirit that has reinforce the country’s entrepreneurial spirit.  Leahy2, which permanently authorized the EB-5 program, and Whitehouse1, which helps participants in startup accelerators obtain INVEST visas, will take concrete steps to strengthen our economy.  Both amendments will help spur innovation and enable America to continue as the world’s economic leader.

Boosting Our Economy

Senator Leahy’s amendment to permanently authorize and further strengthen the EB-5 Regional Center Program will be a boon to the economy.  The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that administers the EB-5 program, estimates that the EB-5 Regional Center Program has created tens of thousands of American jobs and has attracted more than $1 billion in investment in communities across the United States since 2006.

Senator Whitehouse’s amendment providing INVEST visas for participants in startup accelerators will also create jobs and reinvigorate the nation’s entrepreneurial spirit.  Accelerators such as Y Combinator, TechStars, Betaspring, and many others, have helped launch hundreds of successful companies across this country, creating numerous American jobs in the process.  Many participants in these programs come from other nations, but were educated at American universities and this amendment will help keep their businesses in this country.

Immigration Reform Is Necessary to Spur Innovation and Make Our Economy Stronger

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President, American Action Forum, has said: “Immigration reform represents an economic policy opportunity.  It is an opportunity for the United States to dictate to the evolution of its future population… It will dictate the labor force participation and the effort exerted in our economy.  It will have strong influences on the entrepreneurship and small business creation… [I]t will increase the productivity growth in the US economy, the fundamental building block of higher standards of living, and generate larger economic growth numbers than we have seen in recent years.”

The Bottom Line: The Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill help keep America at the forefront of global innovation and competition.

Research by the Partnership for a New American Economy showed that immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business in the U.S. as non-immigrants. In 2011, immigrants started 28 percent of all new business while only accounting for 13 percent of the U.S. population. [PNAE, 8/1/12]