October 1, 2008

E-Verify Legislative Update

On September 27, 2008, Congress completed work on H.R. 2638 which contained a short-term reauthorization of E-Verify and extended the program until March 6, 2009. The Senate passed this stop-gap bill with a 78-12 vote. The House of Representatives had passed the bill earlier in the week by a 370-58 vote. It should be noted that H.R. 2638 is merely a continuing resolution ("CR"). This means that although E-Verify will survive until March, a new reauthorization battle will need to be fought again in 2009 with a new President in the White House who may or may not support the program. In addition to this short extension of E-Verify, the CR contains $100 million of funding for the program through fiscal year 2009. In hopes of continuing the E-Verify program, many Senators pushed for the passage of a “clean” version H.R. 6633, which grants a five year reauthorization of E-Verify. Despite the fact that H.R. 6633 passed the House on July 31, 2008, by a 407-2 vote, as of Monday morning, the bill had not come to a vote in the Senate. This is due to the fact that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is currently placing the bill on hold due to his introduction of the Visa Efficiency and E-Verify Extension Act of 2008 (S. 3414) on July 31, 2008. Menendez’s proposal is almost identical to H.R. 6633 other than that his proposal includes visa recapture provisions. These provisions would recapture employment-based and family-based immigrant visas that went unused between fiscal year 1992 and fiscal year 2007 and going forward would roll over unused visas into the following fiscal year. It is estimated that Menendez’s recapture provisions would add 550,000 extra visas to the immigration system

Given the current economic crisis and the complexity of the issue, it is unlikely that Congress will address the E-Verify program until the 2009 session. As always, GT will continue to provide you will important updates regarding any E-Verify legislation.