Final Push to Pass Important Legislation this Congressional Session
Posted Aug 25, 2000

As readers of the MurthyBulletin may be aware, Congress left for their August 2000 recess without acting on any of the key pieces of immigration-related legislation that need to be passed now. Some of those bills were described in our "Recap of Important Pending Legislation" in the August 11, 2000 edition of the MurthyBulletin.

Pending bills include measures to increase the H1B quota while providing relief from the 6-year limit and per-country quotas (H.R.3983 and S.2045); to reenact 245 (i), the penalty fee provision for otherwise eligible people to file for adjustment of status, despite having fallen out of status; to update the "registry" date; and to ameliorate the overly harsh provisions of the 1996 immigration laws that subject people to deportation for minor offenses committed long ago. 

The American Immigration Lawyers Association has announced a national call-in week from September 11^-15, 2000 and a Washington D.C. "lobby day" to meet with Senators and Representatives on September 13, 2000. These efforts are definitely not just for lawyers. The more people directly concerned (employers, families and the immigrants themselves) who contact Congress, the better!  Further details and updates will appear in an upcoming issue of the MurthyBulletin.