On Wednesday night, friends sitting on the House Appropriations Committee successfully offered two critical amendments to the Stimulus Bill (entitled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill) designed to ensure that jobs created by the stimulus package will go to legal workers. 

First, Congressman Ken Calvert (R-CA) offered an amendment that would reauthorize E-Verify for four years. The language of this amendment is identical to H.R.6633, the bill that passed the House last July by a vote of 407-2. (Calvert Press Release, January 21, 2009).

Then, later in the evening, Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) offered an amendment that requires all businesses that receive stimulus money under the bill to use E-Verify to help ensure that their workforce is legal. (Kingston Press Release, January 21, 2009).

Both Congressmen Calvert and Kingston have been long-time supporters of E-Verify, the electronic system that allows employers to verify that they are hiring legal workers by matching identification documents against databases managed by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The program, formally know as the Basic Pilot Program, was established in 1996 by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and has become an effective tool for ensuring a legal workforce, protecting wages, and fighting illegal immigration. Homeland Security reports that over 100,000 businesses now use E-Verify with an average of 1,000 employers signing up every week.

Unfortunately, E-Verify will expire March 6th unless Congress acts. Yesterday's efforts by Congressmen Calvert and Kingston represent the first step to getting E-Verify reauthorized and holding employers who receive taxpayer money accountable for hiring legal workers. Please review the following list and call those committee members from your state to thank them for supporting these two critical amendments!  If none of the members of this list are from your state, please feel free to select a handful of members from neighboring states to call and thank. We need to let these members know that we strongly support E-Verify reauthorization and are watching how the House handles this issue.

Members of the House Appropriations Committee

REPUBLICANS

DEMOCRATS

In the next week or two, FAIR will be calling on all activists to call members in the Senate to support the same language. Please stay tuned for more information on how you can make a difference!