Legislative Information
SHRM
Advocates for Federal New Employee Verification Act
March 12th
was the conclusion of the Society of Human Resource Management
three day legislative conference in Washington D.C, with over
500 members attending. Indiana SHRM members were on Capitol Hill
advocating for legislation that impacts employers and employees.
The New Employee Verification Act (NEVA), H.R. 5515, is a bi-partisan
bill that human resource professionals from all fifty states advocated
to their Senators and Representatives as a bill that will provide
a secure, efficient and reliable electronic system that will help
prevent unauthorized employment. This bill is especially important
because some states, including Indiana, have considered or are
considering passing State legislation to prevent the hiring of
illegal immigrants by business. One of the problems with all these
bills is that they rely on the I-9 system and E-Verify in the
hiring process.
The current
verification system is inherently subjective and ultimately not
a secure process. It is a paper process that relies on paperwork
that allows unauthorized workers to obtain employment utilizing
sophisticated fraudulent documents. The E-Verify system that is
being utilized by some companies relies on paper documentation
and the accuracy is therefore undermined. Legislative approval
and funding for E-Verify is schedule to expire November 2008.
SHRM has
a worldwide membership of 225,000 individuals with over 6,000
in Indiana. Steve Kellam, the Co-Director for Government Affairs
for the Indiana State Council of SHRM, indicates that the information
provided to the offices of Senators and Representatives on their
visits was well received. “We had eight Indiana SHRM members
that provided information on the bill and advocated for a companion
Senate bill and co-sponsors in the House”.
The NEVA
bill would help prevent unauthorized employment, protect employee’s
identities and preserve Social Security. It was introduced by
Congressman Sam Johnson of Texas and has bi-partisan support.
NEVA will replace the current flawed federal government employer
verification process with a more effective Electronic Employment
Verification System (EEVS) operated by the Social Security Administration.
The bill also establishes a voluntary secondary system called
the Secure Electronic Employment Verification System (SEEVS) to
authenticate employee identities. The legislation will provide
strong identity protection measures, secure personal identity
information, eliminate the paperwork, does not require re-verifying
current employees, preempts any state law in regard to employer
fines or sanctions for immigration – related issues or in
requiring employers to verify work status, ensures liability protection
for employers who comply with the new system and protects the
Social Security Administration trust funds by authorizing the
EEVS through advance appropriated funds.
Quoting Congressman
Sam Johnson, “In order to ensure a legal workforce in this
country we must learn from our past mistakes and pursue a new
direction. The legislation I propose does just that, it recognizes
that our current system is broken and draws upon the latest advances
in technology in order to chart a new course. This proposal will
help restore our faith in the rule of law, and restore the blessings
of legal immigration our nation has long enjoyed.”
When comparing
E-Verify to the systems in NEVA it is easy to see the differences:
NEVA protects U.S. citizen information, NEVA protects employees
from identity theft, NEVA is easy to use and authorizes a phone
system for companies where use of a computer may not work in all
cases, and NEVA protects employers. None of this is provided with
E-Verify.
As Steve
Kellam indicates, “Our membership is hopeful that the Indiana
Legislature does not pass the illegal immigration bills they have
been considering, when we are all painfully aware they will not
solve the problem. For years a federal solution, that will work,
has been needed and we are very happy to support NEVA as that
solution.”
Further information:
Link for H.R. 5515
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/File/PDFs/Johnson/johnson_bill.pdf
Link for
a section by section breakdown of H.R. 5515
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/File
/PDFs/Johnson/Section%20by%20Section.pdf
Chart outlining
Process for Electronic Verification System
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/File/PDFs/Johnson/Systems
%20for%20Electronic%20Employment%20Verification.pdf
Chart outlining
the System for the Electronics Verification System
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/File/PDFs/
Johnson/Process%20for%20Electronic%20Employment%20Verification.pdf
Questions
and Answers on the H.R. 5515
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/File/PDFs
/Johnson/Questions%20and%20Answers.pdf
Submitted
by Steve Kellam, Co-Director Government Affairs, Indiana State
Council SHRM
slkells@earthlink.net 317-489-0455 office
Steve is
President of Human Capital Concepts a Professional Employer Organization
(PEO)
1075 Broad Ripple Ave, Suite 255, Indianapolis, IN 46220
Indiana SHRM
has useful legislative information in this section. Using the
navigation to the right, you can read the most recent legislative
update.
The Legislative
Update is compiled by Chris
Schrader for State matters and Steve
Kellam for Federal Matters
Click
here for 2007/8
Indiana General Assembly Key Leadership/Committee Assignments.
New
Legislative
Update
Click
here for the presentation from the 2006 Indiana State SHRM
Conference with Rob Aspy and Steve Kellam.
Download
the PowerPoint Presentation from the 2007 Indiana State Human
Resouces Conference Government Affairs Summit.
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