Statement of The Honorable Dennis Moore, a Representative in Congress from the state of Kansas

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Social Security
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

May 06, 2008

Chairman Michael McNulty, Ranking Member Sam Johnson and Members of the Social Security Subcommittee, I would like to commend your subcommittee’s work in the 110^th Congress.  Both with regard to pending legislation and oversight of the Social Security Administration (SSA), I admire your steadfast work considering various aspects and the overall efficiency of our country’s most respected program -- Social Security.

Chairman McNulty, I would like to personally thank you for your efforts in addressing the massive disability backlogs that Social Security currently has, and supporting increased funding levels so that the Social Security Administration has the staffing resources it needs to deal with its increasing workloads.  I also appreciated your help in halting a Social Security pilot program that would have closed field offices in my district, which would have given Kansans fewer opportunities to receive the assistance they need.

Ranking Member Johnson, I would like to commend your distinguished service to our country, as well as the hard work you and your staff put into drafting H.R. 5515 the New Employee Verification Act (NEVA), a bipartisan bill which I am a proud cosponsor of.

I also would like to praise the fine work of two freshmen Blue Dogs testifying with me today -- Congressman Heath Shuler from North Carolina, and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords from Arizona.  As the policy chair of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, it is an honor to serve with these individuals.  Among his legislative successes as a freshmen, I commend the effort Congressman Shuler and his staff put into drafting H.R. 4088, the SAVE Act.  This bill has garnered broad, bipartisan support from over 150 Members, and it seeks to tackle one of the most daunting challenges facing the federal government today – illegal immigration.  It is not often that we see freshmen in Congress take on challenges like immigration that Americans desperately want the federal government to address, so again, I applaud Congressman Shuler’s work on this issue.

Congresswoman Giffords is another strong Blue Dog who has not been afraid to take on big issues.  Among other things, she has penned H.R. 5552, the Border Security Accountability Act, of which I am a proud cosponsor.  Congresswoman Giffords’ bipartisan bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to submit regular reports to Congress on the progress necessary to increase our border security and regain operational control of our borders.  I have also joined her as a cosponsor of Ranking Member Johnson’s New Employee Verification Act, which I look forward to discussing today.

I am also pleased that my good friend, former Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly from Connecticut, has been invited to testify before the committee.  I know of few people who have the passion, wisdom and fortitude to preserve and protect Social Security as she does.  I enjoy working with her and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), which she leads, and I look forward to hearing Congresswoman Kennelly’s insights on what role Social Security should play in the context of employer verification proposals.

Today, I testify before your committee as not only a Member deeply concerned about the current efficiency of the Social Security Administration, but also a Member who hears from countless constituents demanding that the federal government do something to put an end to illegal immigration.  Especially since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, with the thousands of Americans that died from the senseless acts of terrorism, our citizens have demanded that our government regain full, operational control of our borders.  We are putting our citizens’ safety at risk if we do not know who is coming into our country.

It is deeply disappointing that the Bush Administration has such a poor record on enforcing our current immigration laws.  In the first six years of the Administration, the number of illegal aliens apprehended in the United States was down by over 25 percent compared to the last six years of the Clinton Administration.  When President George W. Bush was inaugurated in 2001, our country had an estimated 6-7 million illegal aliens.  With little enforcement of our current immigration laws at either the workplace or the border, that population has ballooned to an estimated 11-12 million illegal aliens, approximately doubling the number of illegal aliens who reside in the United States. 

Additionally, in 1999, there were 417 employers that were fined for hiring illegal immigrants.  That number dropped to only three employers that received fines for employing illegal aliens in 2004.  Even more troubling, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that approximately 20,000 criminals successfully gained entry into the United States just in 2006.  Why?  Because of staffing shortages at airports and other border entry points.  This record is not acceptable to the American people, and it is unacceptable to me.

I am proud that the 110^th Congress has decided to act.  I voted for H.R. 2399, the Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act sponsored by Congressman Baron Hill.  The bill would increase penalties for knowingly bringing an illegal immigrant into our country, or harboring an illegal immigrant, and was approved by a vote of 412-0 in the House.  Pursuant to H.Res. 1126, the text of H.R. 2399, as approved by the House, was added as Division B to H.R. 2830, the Coast Guard Authorization Act, as approved by the House on April 24, 2008.  The combined bill has been sent to the Senate for consideration. 

I also voted for H.R. 2764, the fiscal year (FY) 2008 omnibus appropriations measure which President Bush signed into law (P.L. 110-161).  The funding measure included $3 billion of emergency border security and immigration enforcement funds that I strongly supported, and those funds are helping our border patrol agents regain operational control of our borders and enforce the laws already on our books.

But that is not enough.  A number of my constituents have expressed concern about our border security, but they also point out that immigrants break our laws to earn a better living for them and their families.  I do not begrudge anyone who wants to work hard to provide for their families, but as a former District Attorney for twelve years, I understand that if the government turns a blind eye to illegal behavior, our rule of law will be undermined and chaos will ensue.  If the prospects of a job attract individuals to illegally cross our borders or overstay their visa, part of our immigration enforcement approach should include verifying who is and who isn’t authorized to legally work in our country.

For these reasons, I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 5515, the New Employee Verification Act sponsored by Ranking Member Johnson, Congresswoman Giffords and over 25 other Members.  NEVA focuses on improving worksite enforcement, improving the implementation of current law which prohibits the hiring of any illegal immigrant or individual unauthorized to work in the United States.  The only government employment eligibility verification system that employers can use is the voluntary E-Verify program (formerly known as “Basic Pilot”) that is operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  In 12 years of operation as a pilot program, E-Verify is currently utilized by fewer than one percent of American employers.  NEVA would replace E-Verify with the state “new hire” reporting process which most employers already use to check for child support enforcement purposes. 

Employers are legally responsible for ensuring a legal workforce, yet today’s paper document verification system is unable to prevent document fraud and identity theft.  An improved employment verification system that enables employers to effectively identify unauthorized workers and that allows Americans to protect their identities would help prevent identity theft and illegal employment. 

H.R. 5515 would also create a voluntary biometrics option that employers could choose to use in the verification process.  This Secure Electronic Employment Verification System (SEEVS) would include a standard background check and the collection of a biometric characteristic – a thumb print, for example – to secure an employee’s identity and prevent the illegal use of a Social Security number, stolen drivers’ license, or the altered identification documents of legitimate citizens and legal residents.  A biometric employment verification system is supported by most Americans.  A study conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and Public Opinion Strategies this year showed that 79% of Americans surveyed support the use of a biometric employment verification system.

When it comes to worksite enforcement, I believe the federal government needs to work with the business community to develop sound, reasonable policies that will not overtly infringe on the work of legitimate, responsible employers while weeding out the bad employers that exploit illegal immigrants and game the system.  NEVA is currently supported by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the National Association of Home Builders, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), National Franchisee Association, National Association of Manufacturers, Food Marketing Institute, HR Policy Association and other business groups.

It is also important to note that NEVA would preempt any state law with regard to employer fines, sanctions for federal immigration law violations, or with verifying work status and authorizations.  Currently, businesses are faced with a confusing patchwork of state and local immigration laws despite the fact that the Constitution gives jurisdiction of immigration matters to the federal government.  We should only ask American businesses to comply with one clear and easy to understand employment eligibility verification federal law.  Also, NEVA would apply only to employers’ newly hired employees and would not require employers to re-verify all existing employees.  Employers would be responsible only for the hiring decisions of their own employees, and not be held liable for their subcontractors.

Finally, NEVA would take steps to protect the mission of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the responsibilities it already maintains.  Most experts agree that no matter how mandatory employment verification is implemented, SSA will play a major role based on the identity database it maintains.  Unless Congress is willing to create an entirely new, separate and costly identification database, any mandatory employment verification system will require the use of SSA’s database, thus requiring SSA’s involvement.  It is only logical to give SSA as much control and authority as possible over its own database.

Given this context, NEVA would require SSA to act only to the extent that funds are appropriated in advance to cover the agencies costs.  In other words, the normal administrative budget for SSA’s work would not be needed to implement NEVA’s requirements.   The SSA’s Inspector General issued a report in 2006 that estimated the discrepancies in approximately 4.1 percent of agency records could result in incorrect feedback when submitted for employment eligibility verification.  Through advance funding, NEVA would provide the resources SSA needs to help clean up its databases, increasing the accuracy and efficiency for all services SSA provides to Americans.

To reiterate, NEVA ensures a legal work force, safeguards workers’ identities and protects Social Security as summarized here –

1. Ensures a legal work force

• Strengthens enforcement through enhanced employer penalties.
• Provides a superior, user-friendly employment verification system by replacing the current paper-based, error-prone, I-9 work status verification process with a paperless, reliable Electronic Employment Verification System (EEVS).
• Allows employers to enter EEVS data through an electronic portal they already use to enhance child support enforcement, their State’s new hire reporting program.
• Requires the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department Homeland Security to certify the accuracy of the system in advance of full implementation, and annually thereafter. Also requires the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the accuracy, efficiency and impact of the EEVS.
• Provides for the verification of U.S. citizens only by the SSA.
• Avoids a “big brother” law enforcement agency building new databases on law abiding citizens.

2. Safeguards workers’ identities

• Creates an alternate, voluntary Secure Electronic Employment Verification System (SEEVS) to verify employees’ identity and work eligibility and to “lock” that identity once verified.
• Establishes a network of private sector government-certified companies to authenticate new employees’ identities utilizing existing background check and document screening tools.
• Ensures each employee’s identity is safeguarded through the use of a biometric identifier (such as a thumbprint). The employee would then present their identifier to their employer to confirm their identity and work authorization.
• Curtails the creation of new government bureaucracies to administer the employment verification system and does not require any new national or state identification cards to facilitate the process, thus savings billions of dollars as well as preventing another opportunity for identity fraud.

3. Protects Social Security

• Prevents wages earned through future unauthorized work from being used to determine benefits.
• Protects the SSA’s primary mission and trust funds by authorizing employment verification only through advanced appropriated funds.

It is clear to me that Congress needs to replace our out-of-date and ineffective immigration laws with strong reforms that will improve our border security and make our immigration policies more realistic, enforceable, and complimentary to the global economy we live in.  I appreciate many of the ways NEVA attempts to address these complicated issues. 

We must secure our borders.  We must strictly enforce our current laws.  We must crack down on employers who knowingly hire and exploit illegal immigrants.

Thank you again for holding this hearing on the important topic of employment verification in the context of immigration reform, and I look forward to working with Chairman McNulty, Ranking Member Johnson and Members of the subcommittee to address this issue while preserving the integrity and efficiency of the Social Security Administration and our citizens which it serves.