House Leaders Struggle with Employee Verification Bill

April 9, 2008

Despite the House’s strong desire to not have their immigration efforts end up by the wayside with last year’s Senate attempts at passing broad legislation, it is unlikely Democrats will coalesce around one comprehensive bill. Responding to the almost certain outcome that mirrors the Senate’s 2007 month-long debate ending in a stalemate, House Democratic leaders are likely to push ahead with a series of hearings on the issue.

House Republicans, however, are pushing for a floor vote on legislation introduced by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) that would mandate E-Verify (formerly known as the Basic Pilot Program), an electronic employment verification program, for all U.S. employers within four years. The legislation, Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act (H.R. 4088), was introduced in November of 2007 and currently has 151 bipartisan cosponsors.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scored the bill at $23 billion over 10 years. The CBO also said the bill would cost private-sector employers $136 million and state and local governments $68 million to comply with the bill's employment verification requirements. Shuler and his supporters have questioned CBO’s analysis, saying it failed to take into account the savings achieved through the bill’s reduction in illegal immigration. However, some estimate the CBO estimate is on the low side, citing a 2005 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that estimated a mandatory phone-in option for employment verification—which is included in Shuler’s bill—would cost employers and the government $11 billion annually.

Shuler’s bill has been held up by Democratic leaders, resulting in a Republican discharge petition that currently has 185 signatures—10 of which are from Democrats. Leadership, concerned with the likely possibility that several Blue Dog Democrats will join the Republican’s petition, have agreed to the series of hearings in the hopes that such discussions will encourage those more moderate Democrats to hold onto their pens for now. The discharge petition, if it reaches the requisite 218 votes, would relieve the Committees on Homeland Security, Judiciary, Ways and Means, Education and Labor, Oversight and Government Reform, Armed Services, Agriculture, and Natural Resources from their referral duties and move the bill directly to the floor.

In lieu of broader immigration reform bill--the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy (STIRVE) Act of 2007 (H.R. 1645) was introduced last year by Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)--Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Democratic Caucus Chairman, has been working with key Democrats, including Shuler and Gutierrez, on a more limited bill focused on enforcement, employer visa needs, temporary visas for illegal immigrants.

While Shuler's bill has seemingly broad support the CBO findings could signal an end to Shuler's bill. Particularly given the pay-go rules in the House — coupled with the fact that several of the bill’s cosponsors have not signed on to the discharge petition, and the Senate’s inability to pass legislation last year on this issue.