# Plain Language Summary: American Dream Employment Act of 2021

This bill allows certain immigrants who have legal work authorization to get jobs working for Congress—the House of Representatives and the Senate. Right now, there are rules that effectively prevent people from working as congressional staff or employees unless they're U.S. citizens. This bill changes that by saying three specific groups of immigrants should be treated the same as citizens when Congress decides who to hire.

The three groups covered are: people who came to the U.S. as children and got protection through the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), people granted "deferred enforced departure" status, and people with temporary protected status. All three groups already have legal permission to work in the United States—they have employment authorization documents. The bill simply removes the citizenship requirement that currently blocks them from working in Congress specifically.

In practical terms, this means a young person brought to America as a child who has been living and working here legally could now apply for a job as a congressional staffer, researcher, or administrative assistant. Currently, even though they're authorized to work everywhere else in the country, Congress's hiring rules exclude them. The bill would let Congress hire from this pool of workers starting in fiscal year 2022. This is mainly symbolic and practical—it opens doors for people who are already legally working in America to participate in government employment, but it doesn't change their immigration status or create any new legal pathways to citizenship.

American Dream Employment Act of 2021

Kirkpatrick, Ann

American Dream Employment Act of 2021 This bill establishes that, for the purposes of eligibility to be an officer or employee of an office of Congress, an individual shall be treated as a U.S. citizen if that individual has (1) employment authorization under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, (2) employment authorization under a grant of deferred enforced departure, or (3) temporary protected status. (Generally, these programs and statuses allow eligible aliens to remain and work in the United States.)