Today the Conference Committee is meeting to consolidate the House of Representatives’ stimulus bill and the Senate’s stimulus bill. The House’s version contains a provision that would require all federal contract recipients of stimulus funding to enroll in the E-verify system. E-verify is an electronic system meant to improve a business’ ability to verify an employee’s eligibility to work.
Although the E-verify provision makes conceptual sense, the practical implication of the provision will create a significant hinderance to the stimulus package’s purpose. The E-verify system is simple not ready for a vast expansion. Currently, only about 100,000 employers are registered for the E-verify program. If the provision is passed, it is likely that a significant portion of the 7.4 million employers in the nation will need to enroll in the E-verify program.
Requiring companies to use E-verify will add to the overhead of businesses who will have to spend money learning how to properly use the system. The Heritage Foundation claims that the E-verify system costs a company between $4 and 20 dollars per employee. Additionally, using E-verify will consume time. It has already been documented that the government databases used by E-verify have numerous discrepancies. Discrepancies cost employers valuable time and money to resolve as the discrepancies cause many legitimate, work authorized employees to be flaged as unauthorized to work.
If the purpose of the stimulus package is to quickly provide money to American businesses, then the E-verify provision should be stripped from the bill. In the future, when the E-verify program is improved, Congress can more carefully examine the merits of implementing the program. Perhaps such a debate could be had while discussing comprehensive immigration reform.