House Approves Measure To Extend E-Verify by Five Years
On July 31, 2008, the House approved "H.R. 6633" to extend E-Verify, the federal government's electronic employment verification system, by five years. In spite of the many signs previously given by U.S. Representatives approved without amendment, HR 6633 or the Employee Verification Act of 2008, 407-2.
The legislation was introduced by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), would amend 
the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to extend the life of the voluntary program five years to Oct. 31, 2013. U.S. representatives initially supported legislation to scrap E-Verify in favor of a new mandatory verification system, but according Giffords, she introduced a five-year extension to make time for more study of the current system. Further, Giffords told lawmakers during House floor remarks that "within five years or less, the federal government must develop a mandatory system that operates uniformly across all 50 states." Technically, the bill would 
authorize two Government Accountability Office studies about aspects of E-Verify. The first study would examine erroneous tentative nonconfirmations under E-Verify, specifically focusing on the causes of erroneous tentative nonconfirmations, processes to remedy errors, and the impact of such errors on individuals, employers, and federal agencies. The second study would analyze the effect of E-Verify on small businesses and other small entities using the program. That study would focus on the cost to small entities of complying with E-Verify, an estimate of the number of small businesses participating in E-Verify, an analysis of compliance requirements such as reporting and recordkeeping, and steps DHS can take to minimize the economic impact of participating in E-Verify.
I agree with SHRM that E-Verify is not a long-term solution. A "temporary extension" in order to 
allow additional time to design a fair and effective employment verification system is a workable proposition for employees and employers alike. The bill now moves to the Senate, which is in recess until Sept. 8, 2008.
The House subcommittee approved a bill that would allow the "recapture" of previously 
unused employment-based visas. The bill ("H.R. 5882"), introduced April 23 by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chairman of the subcommittee, and Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), was approved on July 31, 2008 during a markup session. Eight Democratic representatives approved the bill. The bill now moves to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration. The objective of the bill is to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA") to recapture visas that were authorized between fiscal year 1992 and 2007, but went unused due to bureaucratic delays. The bill prevents visas from being lost in the future by rolling them over to the following fiscal year. The visa recapture applies to both employment-based visas and family-based visas. 
Rep. Lofgren stated that "H.R. 5882 is about ensuring that bureaucratic 
inefficiency and waste do not stand in the way of U.S. citizen families and businesses trying to use our immigration system in a legal way." The bill does not change the present number of available visas and does not add visas to caps. What the bill does is find visas lost due to "bureaucratic inefficiency." If the bill eventually becomes law, it would mean that approximately 557,000 additional or "lost" visas would be available for use. It would appear that a broad coalition supports the bill. Such law could have a very positive effect on Florida, but immigration reform would still be needed to affect its economy. 