[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14078-14079]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           STOP E-VERIFY DELAYS AND PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, 13 million Americans are out of 
work, but 8 million illegal immigrants hold jobs in the United States. 
Yet the Obama administration has just delayed for the third time a 
requirement that Federal contractors use E-Verify to make sure that 
they hire legal workers. U.S. citizens and legal immigrant workers 
should not have to compete with illegal

[[Page 14079]]

immigrants for employment, especially taxpayer-funded Federal contract 
jobs. The Federal Government has several hundred billion dollars worth 
of contracts, each with good jobs that rightfully belong to American 
workers. E-Verify is the best tool to ensure job security for them. E-
Verify works. It immediately confirms 99.6 percent of work-eligible 
employees. More than 127,000 companies now use E-Verify, and Federal 
contractors should be required to use it. The Obama administration 
should put American workers first. They must stop delaying the 
requirement that Federal contractors hire legal workers.

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