Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., offered an amendment to the unemployment benefits extension bill (S. 1845) that would make E-Verify mandatory for all employers within one year of enactment. The amendment also incorporates language from Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) Accountability through Electronic Verification Act that would create a mechanism within E-Verify to identify potential fraud or misuse of the system, and establish audits of Social Security fraud.
Sen. Sessions released this statement concerning his amendment:
“This commonsense amendment would simply require that E-Verify be used by employers to prevent corporations from hiring illegal workers and therefore undercutting employment opportunities for American workers. If our colleagues in the majority are serious about helping jobless Americans then they should both allow this amendment to come to a vote and support it when it does. Senate Democrats must decide whether their fidelity is to special interest groups, politics, and big government, or to everyday U.S. workers struggling to get by in a low-wage economy with high unemployment.”
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., offered an amendment to the bill that borrowed from a measure Sen. Sessions proposed during the recent budget deal. Her amendment would ban the use of Individual Tax Identification Numbers in applications for the Additional Child tax credit. Illegal aliens who work and file tax returns with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number can apply for the Additional Child Tax Credit. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that illegal aliens claimed $4.2 billion refundable credits in 2010.