Final Stimulus Bill to Restrict TARP Recipeints From Issuing New H-1B Visas

The final version of the stimulus bill, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1, S. 1), was passed by the Congress late on Friday. The final version of ARRA included Senator Sanders’ amendment and the final version which is expected to be signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, February 17th, will restrict the issuance of new H-1B visas by companies who are recipients of TARP funds. (List of TARP recpient companies)

We wrote and analyzed about the proposed amendment on Tuesday, February 10th, and we received a number of comments and reactions.  There was a very intensive effort to try and defeat the Sanders amendment during the conference, but ultimately, the Sanders amendment survived the conference and made its way into the final stimulus bill.

Following the passage, one of the major issues with analyzing the bill were (1) ths size of ARRA and (2) the scanned PDF format in which it was distributed.  Recognizing the urgency of the bill and its passage, we understand that to some extent transparency and convenience were sacrficed.  However, the inability to properly parse the text of the bill delayed its analysis.

According to the Conference Report:

Section 1611 provides that it shall be unlawful for any recipient of funding of Title I of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 or section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act to hire any nonimmigrant described in section 101(a)(15)(h)(i)(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act unless the recipient is in compliance with the requirements for an H-1B dependent employer as defined in that Act.  This requirement is effective for a two-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act.

We would seek a final copy of the bill (as opposed to reading the PDF of the conference report) and post on this site any updates.