Committee compares employee verification systems

Today the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing to discuss various employee verification systems that determine worker eligibility for jobs throughout the United States.

The various measures included Rep. Heath Shuler’s (D-NC) Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act, which would expand the use of E-Verify, a searchable online database of citizen identities and official documentation numbers. Another proposal was Rep. Sam Johnson’s (R-TX) New Employee Verification Act (NEVA), which cosponsor Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D-AZ) said was the more “realistic” approach that rejects the use of E-Verify. Gifford said that since E-Verify was mandated in Arizona in 2007, it has been found “complicated, unreliable, and burdensome” and “mandating E-Verify nationwide for all employees would be disastrous.” She also pointed out that not all employers have the Internet access that E-Verify requires to screen applicants.

Shuler said that E-Verify has resulted in a match for 93 percent of new employees, and of the 7 percent who were not matched, less than one percent “bothered to contest the results.” He called the system “easy to use” and said it is “currently being updated and expanded” to meet increased demand.