Capitol Hill

The term "Balkanization," derived from political divisions in the Balkans during the early 20th century, is used to describe the fragmentation of a country, region or governing body into small, often hostile, units. This term aptly describes the situation Congress is in as it tries to address immigration issues—a situation that became even more fragmented with Rep. Heath Shuler's (D-N.C.) introduction of H.R. 4088, the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act, on Nov. 6, 2007.

Provisions

The SAVE Act is enforcement-only legislation aimed primarily at employers. It would make the E-Verify program mandatory for employers one year after its enactment even though there is no benchmarking to ensure the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) would clean up their databases and provide accurate information to employers.

E-Verify currently is a voluntary employment eligibility verification program (except where certain states are trying to require it) used by about 56,000 employer participants. It is operated by DHS in partnership with the SSA.

Mandating the E-Verify program would raise the number of employers using the system to 7 million despite the fact that the DHS and SSA databases used for E-Verify have high error rates. And it is hard to believe the government's current information technology infrastructure could handle such a deluge of requests.

The SAVE Act also would require the SSA to issue "no-match" letters, which the SSA issues when W-2 forms do not match its records, to all employers with one or more employees who have received such letters. Employers would have to resolve no-match letters within 10 business days of receiving them or fire the employees.

But there is no employer liability protection if an employee is terminated based on E-Verify data and that employee is, in fact, eligible to work in the U.S.

The SAVE Act also would increase employer penalties, allow states to impose more severe requirements and make employers re-verify their entire existing work force within four years of the act's enactment.

Discharge petitions

In March, the SAVE Act had 143 co-sponsors—48 Democrats and 93 Republicans. Most of the Democrats on the bill, such as Shuler, belong to the "Blue Dog" coalition, which postures itself as being more conservative than other House Democrats. But without support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other majority leaders, the bill has had no chance of being brought up for a vote through regular order.

On March 11, Rep. Thelma Drake (R-Va.) filed a discharge petition (No. 0005), with strong backing from House Republican leaders, to remove the SAVE Act from regular order. A discharge petition can be filed after a bill has been pending but not acted on for 30 legislative days.

When at least 218 of 435 House members have signed a petition, it is placed on the House calendar and can be called up for a vote by a signer. As of April 1, Discharge Petition No. 0005 had 185 signatures from 175 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

But getting 218 signatures is difficult because majority leaders put enormous pressure on their members not to usurp regular order through the committee process. Therefore, it is not surprising that, on April 4, Pelosi agreed to allow committee hearings on the SAVE Act.

Pelosi also has been meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), which wants a deal including temporary visas for undocumented workers, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), whose bipartisan Save Our Small and Seasonal Business Act, H.R. 1843, would renew the H-2B visa's returning worker exemption. Pelosi is attempting to generate compromise legislation that can get more than 218 votes as a counterweight to the SAVE Act, but, thus far, this exercise and CHC's resistance to an immigration bill that is not comprehensive is holding Stupak's bill "hostage."

In response to this impasse, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) filed a discharge petition (No. 0006) April 1 to bring Stupak's bill directly to the floor.

Warming up

Congress continues to find itself in a Balkanized state as it addresses immigration issues. And this could be merely a warm-up for when congressional authorization of the E-Verify program expires in September and Congress attempts to renew it with no enforcement-related amendments.

Craig S. Brightup is NRCA's vice president of government relations.