WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said that the committee’s first EB-5 immigrant investor Visa Program hearing of the year will focus on the problems of the program, what authorities federal officials need, and what the executive branch can do on its own to address fraud and abuse. The hearing, entitled "The Failures and Future of the Eb-5 Regional Center Program: Can it be Fixed?," will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 10 a.m. in room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The Director of the EB-5 program at the Department of Homeland Security, Nicholas Colucci, and the Associate Director of the Enforcement Division at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Stephen Cohen will testify.
Grassley has been conducting oversight of the program for five years. Over the course of his investigation, national security vulnerabilities, fraud and abuse, and preferential treatment by agency officials have been revealed.
Grassley said that allegations suggesting the EB-5 program may be facilitating terrorist travel, economic espionage, money laundering and investment fraud are too serious to ignore. Since its inception in the 1990s, the program has strayed further and further away from what Congress intended.
Despite bipartisan, bicameral support for reform, a straight extension of the program was included in the omnibus appropriations bill that was signed into law in December, leaving much needed reforms to go by the wayside.
Grassley and Ranking Member Patrick Leahy have introduced bipartisan reform legislation that would strengthen oversight, ensure greater accountability and transparency, discourage fraud, and provide a higher priority for national security.
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