On Wednesday April 13th, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its second hearing of 2016on the EB-5 Program titled, The Distortion of EB-5 Targeted Employment Areas: Time to End the Abuse. Executive Director Peter D. Joseph served as a witness on behalf of Invest in the USA (IIUSA), the largest and most diverse association of the EB-5 Regional Center industry.
The hearing featured two panels. On the first panel, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA, 6th District) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI, 13th District) Honorable Mark Amoedi (R-NV 2nd District) were called as witnesses.
Testifying alongside Mr. Joseph on the second panel were Mr. Daniel J. Healy, Chief Executive Officer, Civitas Capital Group (also a former member of IIUSA’s Board of Directors), Mr. Timothy Whipple, J.D., Former General Counsel, Iowa Economic Development Authority and Mr. Gary Friedland, Professor, New York University Stern School of Business.
Key Links:
- Read IIUSA’s Press Release
- Written Testimony of Peter D. Joseph, Executive Director, IIUSA
- Written Testimony of Daniel J. Healy, CEO, Civitas Capital Group
- Written Testimony of Timothy Whipple, General Counsel, Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities
- Written Testimony of Gary Friedland, Esq., Scholar-in-Residence, New York University Stern School of Business
- View Recording of Hearing
Written Testimony of Peter D. Joseph
Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Leahy, and Distinguished Members of the Committee:
Thank you for inviting me to testify today. My name is Peter D. Joseph. I am the Executive Director of Invest In the USA (“IIUSA”), the national non-profit trade association for the EB-5 Regional Center industry based in Washington, DC. I have been involved in the EB-5 Regional Center Program (the “Program”) for almost ten years, working first in the legal and private sectors of the industry before beginning at my current position over six years ago. I consider it an honor and a privilege to be here today to share my perspective with you. Leading IIUSA in the years following Great Recession allowed me to see the growing number of communities, industries, and people benefitting from EB-5 firsthand at a time our country needed it most.
IIUSA appreciate the bipartisan, bicameral support and leadership of many in Congress and on this committee. I have had the honor of working closely with many of your offices on this issue in the last several years and believe we have a shared goal of making EB-5 a more efficient and effective program. Our shared commitment to the Program has turned a once underutilized immigration program into a vital source of U.S. job creating investment capital today. Since 2008, the Program’s annual contribution to foreign direct investment (“FDI”) inbound into the U.S. grew over 1,200% to total almost $5 billion in fiscal year 2015 alone (see Appendix I). This investment capital is creating tens of thousands of jobs for U.S. workers in diverse communities by funding projects in a wide variety of industry sectors across the country – all at no cost to the taxpayer. In fact, the Program generates much needed tax revenue to the tune of over half a billion dollars in state and local tax revenue and over one billion in federal tax revenue from 2010-2013 alone. Read the Full Written Testimony
