Today, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees agreed to a three-year extension of E-Verify, effectively rejecting the Senate-passed version of the bill, which had called for a permanent reauthorization of the program. The conference agreement for the FY 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations bill (H.R. 2892) also includes $137 million to operate the system and further improve accuracy and compliance rates.
The committees also appear to have removed two provisions from the Senate version of the bill which would have permitted optional verification of an employer’s existing workforce, and mandated all federal contractors and subcontractors to use E-Verify for both new hires and existing employees, without any conditions or exemptions.
The DHS Appropriations bill will now head back to the House of Representatives and the Senate for a final vote on passage, which should occur in the next few days.
With only hours remaining before the end of the fiscal year, the Senate today approved a one month stop-gap spending measure, effectively extending the E-Verify program through October 31, 2009. As previously reported, the House passed the continuing resolution last week, and the bill now heads to the White House for President Obama’s signature. The Senate Committee on Appropriations press release is available below.
The Senate also approved a $4.7 billion legislative branch spending bill, which provides funding for congressional offices and related agencies. Lawmakers must now work on the remaining 11 spending bills, including the DHS bill for funding E-Verify. Stay tuned for more updates.
Today, the House-Senate Committee on Appropriations approved a stopgap spending measure to allow continued government operations of various programs, including E-Verify, through October 31, 2009. As previously reported, this measure is necessary since Congress has failed to complete work on any of the 12 annual spending bills for agency budgets that it passes each year. The combined measure is slated for a House floor vote tomorrow. The conference summary is available on the House Appropriations web site here.
With time running out on E-Verify and other federally funded programs, House leaders are considering stopgap legislation this week to keep the government in operation beyond September 30th, the close of the fiscal year. As previously reported, both the House and Senate have proposed extending the E-Verify program as part of the fiscal year 2010 DHS appropriations bill, but have yet to work out differences. The House version proposes a two year extension, while the Senate bill calls for permanent reauthorization along with a requirement that federal contractors and subcontractors use the system for all new hires and employees assigned to a contract.
According to CongressDaily, House leaders will likely implement the stopgap measure (known as a continuing resolution) through the end of October, although the exact date could easily change. The additional month will give lawmakers time to finish work on the 12 annual appropriations bills, which provide funding for numerous activities, including national defense, education, homeland security, and general government operations.
In related news, Senator Chuck Grassley wrote a letter today to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pressing them to retain his E-Verify amendment (#1415) which would allow all employers (even those who are not federal contractors) to voluntary check existing employees through E-Verify as long as they do so within ten days of election. Senator Grassley argues that the short time period will prevent employers from targeting certain workers by claiming that they are “still working on” verifying the remainder of their workforce. Under the Senator’s plan, if an employer wishes to check existing workers, it must then check them all.
A copy of Senator Grassley’s letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee is available here. We’ll continue to provide timely updates as Congress debates the future of E-Verify.
The new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Alejandro Mayorkas, held an informal “pen and pad” session with reporters yesterday where he outlined the agency’s commitment to towards improving its information technology as they prepare for the possible expansion of E-Verify to all employers. Although the USCIS has not yet developed detailed plans or budget estimates, Mayorkas did mention ensuring E-Verify has the ability to handle a surge in the number of queries and broadening the scope of verification to include how long a person has been in the country.
According to new sources, the agency is also evaluating a way to use a person’s biometrics, as advocated by Senator Schumer during a hearing in July. With healthcare reform dominating the political landscape, Congress has in no way provided any sort of timeline for tackling immigration, although advocates who favor reform are hoping to see a bill by next spring.
For more information, check out the Morning Roundup – September 15th on DHS’s aptly named site, the Blog @ Homeland Security.
The new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Alejandro Mayorkas, held an informal “pen and pad” session with reporters yesterday where he outlined the agency’s commitment towards improving its information technology as they prepare for the possible expansion of E-Verify to all employers. Although the USCIS has not yet developed detailed plans or budget estimates, Mayorkas mentioned that the E-Verify system will need to have the capacity to handle a surge in the number of queries once a nationwide mandate is established. He also indicated that USCIS may expand the scope of verification by tracking how long a person has been in the country and using a person’s biometrics, as advocated by Senator Schumer during a hearing in July.
With healthcare reform dominating the political landscape, it’s unlikely that Congress will tackle immigration anytime soon, although reform advocates are hoping to see a bill by next spring. For more information, check out the Morning Roundup – September 15th on DHS’s aptly named site, the Blog @ Homeland Security.
The legal wrangling over the federal contractor implementation date appears to be coming to its final(?) end as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has now also denied the plaintiffs’ motion for an injunction to stop the E-Verify federal contractor rule’s implementation. According to court documents, plaintiffs filed this motion with the appeals court on Friday, the government responded on Sunday, and this latest denial order was just filed today.
The next legal obstacle is the extension of the E-Verify program itself, which is set to expire in three weeks (September 30, 2009) unless Congress takes action to continue its funding. Earlier this year, both houses proposed extending the E-Verify program as part of the fiscal year 2010 DHS appropriations bill. The House version proposed a two year extension, while the Senate, led by Senator Jeff Sessions, proposed a permanent reauthorization along with a requirement that federal contractors and subcontractors use the system for all new hires and employees assigned to a contract. Given the disparity between these proposals, the actual provisions will need to be reconciled and approved in the coming weeks.
