DALLAS, Dec. 18, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Civitas Capital Group ("Civitas") is pleased that Congress has extended the EB-5 Regional Center program until September 30, 2016. Civitas manages a number of Regional Centers in Texas and nationally, including public-private partnerships with the cities of Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth and Laredo that have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign direct investment. This capital has been deployed to help finance dozens of projects in both rural and urban communities in North Texas, South Texas, West Texas and Houston. For many Texas communities, EB-5 has become an important economic development tool, providing inexpensive, flexible financing for a wide range of projects.
While the U.S. EB-5 program merits a long-term extension to provide the certainty necessary to effectively compete with other international investor programs, we are heartened by the fact that there is broad, bicameral and bipartisan support for the program. We are grateful to Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Leahy, Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers, their talented staffs, and many others, who spent untold hours crafting legislation for a long-term reauthorization and comprehensive reform of the EB-5 program, including major new accountability and integrity measures designed to strengthen and further professionalize the EB-5 program. Finally, we wish to specifically thank our home-state champions, including Congressman Pete Sessions, for engaging EB-5 stakeholders in furtherance of broadly supported, common-sense reform and integrity measures.
Dan Healy, Civitas CEO and immediate past Chairman of the Best Practices Committee for IIUSA, the leading EB-5 trade association, noted, "While we ran out of time to finalize a long-term reauthorization and reform package, Congress made significant progress on a host of integrity measures that will increase transparency, oversight and compliance. While some details of the package still need to be ironed out, there is no need to wait until next year to raise the bar with respect to program integrity. I encourage Congress to pass Senator Flake's EB-5 Integrity Act now. This will put comprehensive and important oversight and accountability measures in place now, while giving Congress time to finalize the remaining particulars of a long-term reauthorization by next September."
Civitas is ready to work with Senate and House leadership in 2016 to build upon the current momentum in furtherance of a long-term solution that will be good for the State of Texas and our great nation.
About Civitas Capital Group
The Civitas Capital Group family of companies provides a range of products and services for institutional investors, family offices and qualified individuals. The firm offers U.S. lodging and real estate investment strategies through its Alternative Investments division, while the EB-5 Capital division serves foreign investors seeking permanent U.S. residency in return for investing in a U.S. business that creates jobs for American workers.
For more information about Civitas, please visit www.civitascapital.com or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CivitasCG.