In my last post I wrote of the threat that there would be a Sanders amendment to the Travel Promotion Act.  The amendment would have increased the fees that H-1B Petitioners are charged for that process.  This would have greatly impacted healthcare immigration focused businesses and beneficiaries.   The H-1B has been a bigger part of every company’s immigration strategy since the 2007 retrogression of Schedule A workers.

It appears that this threat to H-1B petitioners has been avoided.  Yesterday word circled through the business immigration that Sen. Sanders has agreed to withhold offering the amendment.  Many leading House and Senate members personally reached out to Sen. Sanders.

The crux of their argument to Sen. Sanders was that if Comprehensive Immigration Reform is going to take root this fall, then piecemeal legislation such as H-1B fee increase would be counterproductive. 

Unfortunately, this means that efforts to pass the Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act (HR 2536) are not likely to be successful this spring/summer.  Representatives and Senators seem to be of the opinion that the ENSRA and other piecemeal legislation can be taken up in a comprehensive package this autumn.  Nevertheless efforts to pass it sooner than the autumn remain underway.

-Chris Musillo