Employers Applaud Support of Democrats for Replacement of E-Verify

Washington, D.C. – The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce today applauded Representative Dennis Moore (D-KS), Co-Chair for Policy of The Blue Dog Coalition, for joining Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), as a Democratic co-sponsor of H.R. 5515, the New Employee Verification Act (NEVA).  

The legislation has been endorsed by the HR Initiative and is viewed by a wide range of U.S. employers as vital to strengthening the nation’s broken employment verification system and to helping prevent unauthorized employment.

NEVA was introduced by Representative Sam Johnson (R-TX) and is designed to provide a superior, user-friendly electronic employment verification system by replacing the current paper-based and error-prone method of verifying employment eligibility.  

“Momentum is building in Congress for an alternative to E-Verify.  NEVA provides a common sense approach to employment verification and holds the promise of a technologically superior system that is accurate, efficient and effective,” said Susan R. Meisinger, President and CEO, Society for Human Resource Management, and co-Chair of the HR Initiative. “The co-sponsorship of Representatives Moore and Giffords is an important step in broadening support for H.R. 5515.  Employers across the country applaud them.”

NEVA would enable employers to confirm quickly and accurately the work authorization of their newly hired employees. Employers would simply submit the employee’s information to the Social Security Administration by a process already widely used by employers for child support enforcement, the state’s “new hire” reporting program.  The new program would be entirely electronic, eliminating paperwork and streamlining verification processes.
“The current employment verification system is broken and needs fixing. This bill is what’s needed, and America’s employers will be grateful for it,” Meisinger concluded.

For a bill summary, visit www.legal-workforce.org.

The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce (www.legal-workforce.org) represents human resource professionals in thousands of small and large U.S. employers representing every sector of the American economy.  The HR Initiative and its members are seeking to improve the current process of employment verification by creating a secure, efficient and reliable system that will ensure a legal workforce and help prevent unauthorized employment, a root cause of illegal immigration.