Senate Rejects Five-Year Reauthorization of E-Verify, Opts for Six-Month Extension
For the second time in as many months, the U.S. Senate passed up an opportunity to reauthorize the highly successful E-Verify program for five years. Instead, Congress opted for a six-month extension through September 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
An amendment to the $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations bill reauthorizing E-Verify for five years was offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). However, that amendment was tabled by the Senate by a 50-47 margin. The Omnibus Appropriations bill, passed in March, was necessary to fund many operations of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year.
Sen. Sessions attempted to include a reauthorization of E-Verify in the economic stimulus bill passed by Congress in February, as well as a requirement that companies receiving stimulus money use E-Verify to ensure that they hire only legal U.S. workers. These provisions were included in the House version of the stimulus bill, but were blocked by the Senate leadership and ultimately stripped from the final version of the bill by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Preventing E-Verify from being terminated is an important milestone for supporters of immigration enforcement. However, the short-term extension of a program that has been proven to protect American jobs indicates that the congressional leadership is preparing to use it as a bargaining chip in a renewed effort to enact amnesty legislation later this year.
The repeated failure of the Senate to reauthorize E-Verify contradicts assertions by Sen. Reid and others that they support E-Verify as a vital protection for American workers during a time of rising unemployment. In a letter to Nevada constituents, Sen. Reid writes, “I strongly support programs like E-Verify that are designed to ensure that employers only hire those who are legally authorized to work in the United States, and believe we need to strengthen enforcement against employers who knowingly hire individuals who are not authorized to work.” The actions of Senate Democrats to block long-term reauthorization clearly belies their professed concern for protecting U.S. workers.
The reauthorization through September 30 does provide FAIR with time to continue to build public support for this critical immigration enforcement tool. With more than 12 million U.S. workers idled, and unemployment now standing at a 26-year high, protecting American jobs from being lost to illegal aliens is vitally important.
April 2009
