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In a late session yesterday, the Senate voted to approve the $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill (H.R. 1105). The House had approved this measure – which extends the E-Verify and EB-5 investor visa programs until September 30, 2009 – on February 25. In addition to temporarily extending these immigration programs, H.R. 1105, which is a combination of nine appropriations bills held over from the Bush administration, provides $56.3 billion to the Department of Labor. This amount is more than $2 billion over what the Bush administration had allocated for this agency.
Although the E-Verify program was extended until September 30, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) had offered an amendment to the bill that would have extended E-Verify for an additional five years. This amendment was tabled by a vote of 50-47.
President Obama is expected to sign this bill shortly.