[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 22817-22819]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       SPECIAL IMMIGRANT NONMINISTER RELIGIOUS WORKER PROGRAM ACT

  Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the 
rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 3606) to extend the special 
immigrant nonminister religious worker program and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the Senate bill.
  The text of the Senate bill is as follows:

                                S. 3606

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

[[Page 22818]]



     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as ``Special Immigrant Nonminister 
     Religious Worker Program Act''.

     SEC. 2. SPECIAL IMMIGRANT NONMINISTER RELIGIOUS WORKER 
                   PROGRAM.

       (a) Extension.--Subclause (II) and subclause (III) of 
     section 101(a)(27)(C)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality 
     Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(C)(ii)) are amended by striking 
     ``October 1, 2008,'' both places such term appears and 
     inserting ``March 6, 2009,''.
       (b) Regulations.--Not later than 30 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security 
     shall--
       (1) issue final regulations to eliminate or reduce fraud 
     related to the granting of special immigrant status for 
     special immigrants described in subclause (II) or (III) of 
     section 101(a)(27)(C)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality 
     Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(C)(ii)); and
       (2) submit a certification to Congress and publish notice 
     in the Federal Register that such regulations have been 
     issued and are in effect.
       (c) Report.--Not later than March 6, 2009, the Inspector 
     General of the Department of Homeland Security shall submit 
     to Congress a report on the effectiveness of the regulations 
     required by subsection (b)(1).
       (d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) 
     shall take effect on the date that the Secretary of Homeland 
     Security submits the certification described in subsection 
     (b)(2) stating that the final regulations required by 
     subsection (b)(1) have been issued and are in effect.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Zoe Lofgren) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California.


                             General Leave

  Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their 
remarks and to include extraneous material on the bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  S. 3606 reauthorizes the Special Immigrant Nonminister Religious 
Worker Program, which provides an avenue for nuns, monks and other 
religious workers to come to the United States to do their important 
work. If we do not act, this program will sunset in just 4 days.
  On April 15 of this year, we passed H.R. 5570 to reauthorize the 
program for 7 years. As sent over from the Senate, the bill allows the 
program to expire on March 6, 2009. While this unfortunate limitation 
will require Congress to revisit this issue promptly next year, I 
believe the program is too important to let expire.
  The 5,000 religious workers eligible for these visas each year are 
called to a vocation or are in traditional religious occupations with 
bona fide nonprofit religious organizations. They are missionaries, 
counselors, religious instructors, and other pastoral care providers.
  There is a bipartisan consensus around this program. It has been 
extended four times since first enacted in 1990. We have worked with 
Mr. Smith to craft provisions to guard against potential fraud. The 
Senate bill incorporates those protections. I think this is a sound 
bill, and I hope that we're able to pass it tonight.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I am happy to have played a part in the creation of the Religious 
Worker Immigrant Visa program in 1990. These visas enable American 
religious denominations, large and small, to benefit from committed 
religious workers from other countries.
  Last April, the House passed legislation to extend the program for an 
additional 7 years. Senator Specter introduced legislation in the 
Senate to extend the program for 3 years. I support this bill today. 
However, it only reauthorizes the religious worker visa program for 
about 5 months.
  Why such a short reauthorization?
  Well, the reason is that some Democrats in the Senate are holding the 
reauthorization of another vital immigration program hostage. The E-
Verify program provides tens of thousands of American employers who 
want to do the right thing with an effective tool to ensure that they 
are hiring a legal workforce.
  The authorization for E-Verify expires in November, so the House 
passed a 5-year reauthorization by the overwhelming vote of 407-2. 
Unfortunately, Democrats in the Senate have refused to pass an 
extension of E-Verify for longer than 5 months. They refuse to pass a 
longer extension unless we accede to their demand to increase 
immigration to the United States by about a half a million people.
  Such a demand goes against the clear preference of the American 
people who support current or reduced levels of immigration. It goes 
against the interest of American workers who compete with foreign 
workers for the same jobs, and it goes against the interest of American 
employers who want to count on E-Verify's being available to them for 
the long term.
  This body is right to reject the demand of the Senate Democrats. 
Unfortunately, since they will only extend E-Verify for 5 months, we 
will only get a 5-month extension of the religious worker visa program. 
So we will need to address this issue again after the 111th Congress 
convenes next January.
  I do appreciate the language in this bill that requires the 
Department of Homeland Security to expeditiously issue needed 
regulations to address fraud in the religious worker visa program. I 
have long been concerned about the high level of fraud that has been 
evident in this program. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I just want to comment 
briefly on the March 6 date.
  It is my understanding that two Republican Senators requested 
dramatic changes to the E-Verify program extension that we were able to 
pass here. When they were unable to get it, the Senate--or I should say 
the other body--was able to agree on just an extension until March 6. 
Then the issue was that nothing else was going to go past March 6.
  So I think it's interesting to note that, even though we oftentimes 
have very contentious disagreements on various immigration matters here 
in the House, we were able to come to an agreement to extend the E-
Verify program for an extended period of time. They couldn't get that 
together in the Senate, so we're going to, indeed, have to revisit this 
as well as E-Verify early next year, and we will have to try and come 
to an agreement that is bipartisan and bicameral. Certainly, we need to 
approve this today so that religious workers can enrich the lives of 
our communities. With that, I urge its adoption.
  Mr. Speaker, S. 3606 is similar to a bill I authored, H.R. 5570, 
which passed the House on April 15 of this year.
  Both bills would reauthorize the Special Immigrant Non-Minister 
Religious Worker Program, which allows non-minister religious workers 
to obtain special immigrant status in the U.S. so that they may do the 
work required of their faith.
  The program is vitally important to religious organizations as it 
provides in many!instances the only avenue for nuns, monks, and other 
people of faith to come to the United States to fill a vocation or 
other traditional religious occupation. Those who use the visas come 
over to serve as missionaries, counselors, translators, religious 
instructors, cantors, and other pastoral care providers.
  Unfortunately, the program is currently set to expire in just a few 
days.
  H.R. 5570, the bill I authored, would have extended the program for 
several years. But S. 3606, as sent back from the Senate, would extend 
the program only through March 6, 2009. Although I strongly would have 
preferred to extend the program for longer, the program is too 
important to let expire. We should extend the program today to allow us 
the additional time we need to work out a longer extension.
  I also note tat the program was first enacted in 1990 and that 
Congress has extended it four times, most recently in 2003. Working 
with Lamar Smith, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, we 
made changes to the program for the first time to address potential 
fraudulent uses of the program. The Senate bill includes those 
protections.
  I urge my colleagues to support this important bipartisan 
legislation.

[[Page 22819]]

  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Zoe Lofgren) that the House suspend 
the rules and pass the Senate bill, S. 3606.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the Senate bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________