Congress creates unaccountable board to set immigration levels in closed-door meetings

What it does

This bill replaces family-based immigration with a skills-based points system, eliminates the Diversity Visa Program, and creates a new federal board to set employment-based immigration levels based on labor market needs. Citizens can no longer sponsor adult siblings or adult children; only spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens remain eligible. Employment-based visas go to applicants with the highest points for education, English proficiency, age, salary, and other factors.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is a wholesale shift from family-based to skills-based immigration, coupled with creation of a new federal board exempt from transparency and judicial-review requirements. This is structural immigration reform, not a narrow carve-out, but the governance model (closed meetings, no APA review) is unusual and concerning.

• Section 7 amends prevailing wage rules for H-1B/SMARTER workers; substantively unrelated to family-immigration elimination or points system.

What the text implies

• The SMART Board is exempt from the Administrative Procedure Act and judicial review (except narrow scope review of numerical limits), insulating immigration-level decisions from public process and court challenge.
• Spouses and minor children of employment-based visa holders are admitted outside the numerical cap, potentially creating a secondary family-reunification pathway for high-skilled workers while eliminating it for others.
• The bill requires employment-based immigrants and their households to be ineligible for federal means-tested benefits, creating a two-tier system where skilled immigrants have fewer safety-net protections.
• Clergy special immigrants are capped at 5% annual growth and barred from bringing spouses or children, a significant restriction on religious-worker immigration.
• The text is truncated mid-section (Section 7 on prevailing wage), preventing full analysis of downstream amendments and potential additional riders.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Ordinary citizens lose the right to sponsor parents, adult siblings, and adult children for immigration—a significant restriction on family reunification. While the bill aims to prioritize high-skilled workers, the elimination of family-based pathways is a concrete cost to citizens seeking to bring relatives to the U.S., and the new board's closed-door decision-making (exempt from public-meeting requirements and judicial review) reduces democratic accountability over immigration policy.

Who stands to gain

• high-skilled employers in STEM and professional sectors
• employers in industries designated as high-need by the SMART Board
• employers able to offer above-median salaries (150%+ of state median household income)

Named in the bill

SMART Board (Skilled Migration and Recruitment of Talent Board), Department of Commerce, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of State, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Secretary of Education, H-1B visa program, Diversity Visa Program, Employment-based immigrant visas, Family-sponsored immigrant visas

Where it stands

• Sep 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Sep 15, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.