This weekend the Senate approved a $1.1 trillion bill to prevent a government shutdown and keep the government up and running for another year. The bill, which passed 56-40 with both bipartisan support and opposition, notably does not fund the Department of Homeland Security. The move to withhold funding from the Department of Homeland Security is an attempt by Republicans to put pressure on President Obama to withdraw his recently announced Executive Order. If Congress can’t pass a funding bill by February 27, 2015, the Department of Homeland Security will shut down.
Grace Period to Correct E-Verify Issues
In light of the federal government shutdown, employers who who were unable to resolve Tentative Nonconfirmations in the E-Verify system in the two weeks leading up to the shutdown may add 12 federal business days to the original date listed on the referral letters in order to resolve their cases with the Social Security Administration or the Department of Homeland Security. For those employees that received a Final Nonconfirmation or No Show as a result of the shutdown, employers must enter a new case in E-Verify in order to allow them sufficient time to attempt to resolve the situation. Employees who were hired during the shutdown must still be entered into E-Verify. Because of the shutdown, employers have until November 5, 2013 to enter them into the system and may use the ‘other’ drop-down field and select ‘federal government shutdown’ to explain why the case is not within the 3-day rule.