President Donald Trump‘s proposal to sell $5 million “gold card” visas caused friction during the House Judiciary Committee‘s talks for his “one, big beautiful bill” after a member unsuccessfully pushed for its inclusion.
Its absence from the 116-page legislative text dealing with immigration fees comes as Trump administration officials tout the gold cards as an alternative for the EB-5 investor program.
The gold card proposal was floated as the committee drafted its portion of the megabill that sweeps together Trump’s agenda, three Republican members on the Judiciary Committee told the Washington Examiner.
However, the decision not to incorporate the gold card proposal in the text released by the committee on Monday came after pushback toward its inclusion, two of the GOP lawmakers confirmed.
“There was enough opposition to keep it out,” one of the members said.
The other lawmaker told the Washington Examiner that there was “massive concern about basically putting up access to the United States for sale, built on basically a model similar to the failed EB-5 program.”
“And that we felt that we shouldn’t do that,” the Judiciary lawmaker said.
It’s not clear how far talks to include language on the gold cards went. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said he pushed for them to be included, per NBC.
“I got screwed out of the gold card because a few of our members wouldn’t go along with having an expansion of revenue related to visas, EB-5 and H-1,” Issa said in an interview with the outlet.
“The president’s point [is] that we should be able to generate revenue by bringing the investors in to invest, and we have a program that brings in very little by comparison. But Chip killed it,” Issa alleged, referring to Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).
Multiple Judiciary members told the Washington Examiner when asked that they were unaware of such debate. A spokesman for the committee said the panel is working with the White House on the issue, signaling that it may not be the end of the road for Trump’s “gold cards” on Capitol Hill.
“We are working hand-in-glove with the White House and totally support President Trump’s agenda,” Judiciary spokesman Russell Dye told the Washington Examiner.
Trump unveiled the cards earlier this year during a press conference in the Oval Office.
“We’re going to be selling a gold card,” Trump said. “You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later clarified that the “gold cards” were meant to replace the EB-5 program, which was created by Congress in 1990 to promote foreign investment, and are available to those who spend $1 million on a company and employ at least 10 people.
Since then, Lutnick has claimed to have sold a large volume of cards, at one point saying that he sold 1,000 of them in a week. On Wednesday, during a Trump administration Cabinet meeting, Lutnick joked that the attention on the gold cards made him “very popular.”
“Last night, I was out to dinner and someone came up and said, ‘Can I buy 10? How do I buy 10?’ It’s good, $50 million for dinner. It’s paying for my dinner,” Lutnick quipped.
Congressional Republicans are aiming to pass the megabill, which also includes an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and new campaign proposals such as “no tax on tips,” by the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the White House for comment.
Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
