Effective Sept. 8, 2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will require government contractors and subcontractors  to use the E-Verify system to verify their employees’ eligibility to work in the United States if their contract includes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify Clause.

According to information published on the USCIS website, in July, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano “strengthened employment eligibility verification by announcing the Administration’s support for the regulation that will award federal contracts only to employers who use E-Verify to check employee work authorization.”

E-Verify is a free online platform that compares information from the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) against federal government databases to verify workers’ employment eligibility. It works to deter unauthorized individuals from attempting to work and also helps encourage employers to comply with federal immigration laws.

After Sept. 8, companies awarded a contract with an “e-verify clause”, will be required to enroll in E-Verify within 30 days of the contract award date. E-Verify will then confirm that any employee working for the company that is contracted, is legally able to work in the U.S.

Click here for more information on E-verify.

According to a recent Federal Registrar article, the government is developing a database to track federal contractor performance.  

 According to the Proposed Rule, current federal contractors with more  than $10 million in current grants or contracts will have to submit data on any criminal, civil or administrative proceedings against them dating back three years. The rule projects that each year about 5,000 contractors will file reports.

 Federal contracting officers will be required to review the database prior to making award decisions for all new contracts worth more than $500,000, the proposed rule stated.

 If contracting officers determine that an “otherwise successful offeror is not a responsible source due to lack of satisfactory performance record or satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics,” then they must include such information in the system.

 “The database will be private and only federal officials will have access. Contractors will be able to view information about themselves, and post comments in response to information that has been included by the government”, the proposal said.

 According to David Drabkin, GSA’s deputy associate administrator for acquisition policy, “GSA expects to award a contract by the end of September that will implement a new way for the agency to manage and possibly merge the nine separate acquisition-related databases that make up its Integrated Acquisition Environment.”

 For more information, check out the proposed rule.

The Federal government is going to spend up to $200 billion to bail out the mortgage industry, Freddie and Fannie. The auto industry is requesting $50 billion as a bail out. Indy Mac banks failure in California will be about $10 billion in government funds. This is all taxpayer money, with no evidence it will help the population at all.And, they took risk and made mistakes like anyone else, why are they entitled to get this money? Are you in favor of this?