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Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), a federal program aimed at reviving the market for securities backed by consumer and small-business loans, is being hampered by a new law that makes it more difficult for investment firms to bring in foreign employees. Last month, legislators added provisions to the stimulus bill that prevent investment firms who get funds under rescue programs from replacing fired U.S. workers with foreign employees. There is growing concern that these hurdles will prevent companies from participating in TALF. The Fed is working with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to provide guidance on the issue.

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As reported at Workforce.com, Rep. Ken Calvert, R-California, who authored the bill that established E-Verify, was unhappy that a provision requiring companies receiving stimulus funding to sign up for E-Verify did not survive in the $787 billion stimulus package. Representative Calvert stated that “there is no assurance that the jobs created will go to American workers,” and asserted that E-Verify was “stripped out of the bill without discussion or debate.” A separate provision, which would have reauthorized E-Verify, also was excluded from the final stimulus package.

Even though E-Verify did not make it into the stimulus package, Congress is likely to find a way to maintain the program (due to expire on March 6, 2009) until it can be addressed as part of a comprehensive immigration bill.
 

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Immigration-related bills are being introduced at a rapid pace. While many of these bills are destined to languish in committee, the sheer volume of immigration legislation introduced by both parties barely two months into the new Congress increases the chance that at least one bill will eventually receive real consideration. The latest bill – Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R. 1096) – would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to create an electronic employment eligibility verification system and a detailed employment verification process, expand the verification system to apply to previously hired individuals, and increase employer penalties for violations, among other things. Continue reading about this bill on Littler's Washington DC Employment Law Update blog

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed by President Obama on February 17, imposes limits on the availability of H-1B visas, but the E-Verify amendment proposed in an earlier version of the bill was eliminated from the final version. Continue reading Littler's ASAP, "Besides COBRA: What Does the Stimulus Package Have for Employers," by Ellen N. Sueda, GJ Stillson MacDonnell, Patricia A. Haim, and Chadwick M. Graham.

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The Senate has approved a modified amendment to the massive stimulus bill (H.R. 1) that substantially limits employers that receive Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds from hiring employees who hold H-1B work visas. This amendment was sponsored by Senators Bernard Sanders (I-VT) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). Continue reading on Littler's Washington DC Employment Law Update blog.

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