Hearing Deals Blow to Expansion of Employee Verification System
Lawmakers say broadening E-Verify would strain the Social Security Administration as the agency tries to reduce a huge backlog of disability claims.
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May 6, 2008
Hearing Deals Blow to Expansion of Employee Verification System
An effort to expand a federal electronic employment verification system was set back at a House hearing on Tuesday, May 6, as lawmakers voiced concerns that the mechanism would overburden the Social Security Administration.

In the first of a series of immigration hearings this spring, the House Ways & Means subcommittee on Social Security explored proposals to crack down on illegal hiring through electronic worker verification.

One idea is to extend the current government electronic system, called E-Verify, to each of the country’s 7.4 million employers. Today, about 61,000 companies voluntarily use E-Verify, which checks information from I-9 forms against databases at the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

Rep. Michael McNulty, D-New York and chairman of the subcommittee, cautioned that the Social Security Administration must not take on added immigration responsibilities while the agency is trying to reduce a huge backlog of disability claims. Constituent queries regarding the payments can take more than 500 days to answer.

“It would be very difficult to get a majority to vote for a nationalization of the E-Verify system at this point in time,â€