The moving target continues…the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council is scheduled to publish a notice in Friday’s Federal Register (1/30/09), delaying the implementation date of the Federal Contractor E-Verify rule until May 21, 2009. According to the notice, contracting officers are instructed not to include the E-Verify clause in any solicitation or contract awarded prior to May 21, 2009.

The Federal Contractor E-Verify rule was originally scheduled to take effect on January 15, 2009, but the implementation was postponed to February 20, 2009, due in large part to the ongoing federal lawsuit filed by business groups who are challenging the legality of the rule. This latest delay comes as a result of a memo issued by the Obama Administration last week, which directed all federal agencies and departments to consider extending the effective date of any regulations which have not yet taken effect so that the new administration can review them.

This second “extension” of the E-Verify Federal Contractor requirement will be welcome news to some employers who have been scrambling to learn about E-Verify and develop appropriate policies and procedures in time for the deadline. Despite this latest reprieve, employers are cautioned that mandatory E-Verify still appears to be on the horizon, in one form or another.