E-Verify Rule Is Postponed Again The Obama administration has again delayed a rule requiring contractors to verify their employees’ immigration status. Implementation of the rule was pushed back to June 30; it was originally set to take effect in January. In an April 17 Federal Register notice, the Federal Acquisition Regulation councils said the delay is necessary “to permit the new Administration an adequate opportunity to review the rule.” Delay does not necessarily mean demise. The new Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, told the Washington Post earlier this year, “I believe in E-Verify.” She said the administration was trying to determine whether the E-Verify system could handle the increased workload. The online system, operated by DHS and the Social Security Administration, uses government records to determine whether an employee is eligible to work in the United States. Last year President Bush ordered federal contractors to confirm the eligibility of their employees. The rule proposed by the Bush administration would require employee verification by companies holding contracts worth more than $100,000 and subcontracts for services and construction exceeding $3,000. By some estimates more than 100,000 contractors per year would have to be verified, nearly double the number that now pass through the system. Business organizations protested that the rule unfairly singles out federal contractors; use of the E-Verify system is voluntary for all other companies, except in a few states. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have sued to block the rule. The lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, MD. The ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, denounced the latest delay. “Delaying implementation of this rule again insults citizen and legal immigrant workers. The purpose of the rule is to ensure that individuals working for or contracting with the federal government employ legal U.S. workers, not illegal foreign workers,” he said in a statement.