Employment eligibility verification requirements for state and local government employees and state procurement and construction contracts

This bill creates a new exception to the lowest-bidder award by prohibiting the state from purchasing or contracting for materials or services, including construction work, with an employer that does not verify, by using the Federal Employment Eligibility Verification Program (Federal E-Verify Program), that all of its employees are eligible to work in the United States or that employs an individual after the Federal E-Verify Program identifies that the individual is not eligible to work in the United States. The Federal E-Verify Program is a system operated by the federal Department of Homeland Security and the federal Social Security Administration that allows an employer to enroll in the system and verify that its employees are eligible to work in the United States. If the state discovers that a contract into which it has entered violates this prohibition, the state must terminate the contract.

State government and local government employment practices This bill provides that a state government agency or local governmental unit that intends to hire an employee after the bill's effective date must verify the individual's identity under the Federal E-Verify Program. A state government agency or local governmental unit may not offer employment to any individual who is identified under the Federal E-Verify Program as ineligible to work in the United States. The bill further provides that, before July 1, 2011, each state government agency and local governmental unit must verify the identity of all of its employees under the Federal E-Verify Program. If a state government agency or local governmental unit determines that an employee is identified under the Federal E-Verify Program as ineligible to work in the United States, the local governmental unit must discharge the employee.