Bill To Force State Employers To Check New Hires

The business-oriented state Senate Commerce Committee today/yesterday approved a bill to require state employers to check a federal data base in Washington to clarify whether a potential employee is in the country legally

If the bill passes the full legislature, Tennessee would be the first state to require employers to use what is essentially a federal pilot project.

Williamson County Republican Jack Johnson is sponsoring the “Employer Responsibility Act.” He says the database has been available on a voluntary basis for years and that some Tennessee employers are using it. But he says more needs to be done.

“You’re currently required under federal law to collect the basic I-9 information, the documentation. But the problem is so much of that is fraudulent. This gives you an ability, if the social security card was made in a back alley somewhere and bought off the black market for $50, and it’s a fraudulent number, you’re gonna catch that. Where now you have no way to determine whether those documents are valid.”

Senator Johnson’s bill has no penalty but employers are required to use it beginning January 1st.

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Even though Senator Jack Johnson’s bill has no penalty, he believes employers will use the database.

“It is required. Now, finer points here. It’s required, there’s no specific criminal penalty or sanction for those that don’t do it. I basically want to use this bill as a means to heighten awareness, to encourage people to be out there and use it. We’re gonna try it for a year. I think most employers will. When they come back and report to us in January of ’09, their success, how they like this system, is it working, is it meeting their needs? Is it a debacle, a disaster? We’ll know. That’s why I put the sunset provision in there, so that we could re-examine that after using it for a year.”

Sen. Johnson’s bill is SB 1870/HB 1422. It is sponsored in the House by Representative Phillip Johnson (R-Pegram). The bill is in the Government Operations Committee in the House, after which it would go to the House Employee and Consumer Affairs Committee.