Facing an impending deadline to respond to SHRM’s lawsuit challenging the legality of a new rule that would require all federal contractors to use the E-Verify employment eligibility system, the government has once again delayed the rule’s effective date.
Earlier this year, SHRM, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Associated Builders and Contractors, HR Policy Association, and the American Council on International Personnel, as part of an ongoing joint lawsuit, reached an agreement with the government to extend the effective date of the rule until May 21, 2009. The government is required to provide a status report next week to the court hearing SHRM’s lawsuit.
Prior to filing its status report, however, the government extended the rule’s applicability date “to permit the new Administration an adequate opportunity to review the rule.”
Any delay of the rule allows more time for the government to re-evaluate its position and consider SHRM’s concerns that the rule exceeds the government’s authority by:
1) Mandating use of the E-Verify program, which was designed to be a voluntary pilot project; and
2) Mandating the re-verification of existing federal contract employees, not currently not allowed by law.
A notice delaying the rule until June 30, 2009 appeared in today’s (April 17) Federal Register. To read today’s Federal Register notice, click HERE