Leading People. Leading Organizations.

1. D WASHINGTON UPDATE & AUGUST CONGRESSIONAL RECESS Leading People. Leading Organizations. SHRM CLA Webinar July 31, 2013

2. HR Public Policy Issues • Labor and Employment: • Employment Non-Discrimination Act • Executive nominations • Health care • Immigration Reform: • Employment verification • Trusted employer program • August Congressional Recess

3. Michael LaymanSHRM’s Senior Associate, Government Relations

4. Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA, S. 815, H.R. 1755) • Introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) • ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity • `Gender identity' means the gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth. • STATUS: Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions approved S. 815 on 7/10/2013. Full Senate may consider the bill this fall.

5. Executive nominations • Senate agreed to a deal on long-stalled nominations • Thomas E. Perez confirmed as Secretary of Labor on 7/18/2013 • Senate poised to approve full five member-slate of NLRB members • Current NLRB chair Mark Pearce (D) • Kent Hirozawa (D) • Nancy Schiffer (D) • Philip Miscimarra (R) • Harry I. Johnson (R)

6. Health care • Employer mandate in Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) delayed until 2015 • What else may change? • PPACA’s definition of full-time employee? • Repeal of PPACA’s $2,000 deductible limitation?

7. Immigration Reform Chatrane BirbalSHRM’s Senior Associate of Member Advocacy

8. Timing for Immigration Reform SENATE BILL (S. 744) KEY HOUSE BILLS (H.R. 1772; H.R. 2131) Historically when have immigration reform bills passed? - IRCA of 1986 (PL 99-603) – November 6, 1986 - IMMACT of 1990 (PL 101-649) – November 29, 1990 - IIRIRA of 1996 (PL 104-208) – September 30, 1996 - AC21 of 2000 (PL 106-313) – October 17, 2000

9. Border Security Economic Opportunity & Immigration Reform Act (S. 744) • E-Verify: Preempts state E-Verify laws; mandatory in four years; not fully electronic; no certainty in verifying the worker is who they claim to be. • Green Cards: Nearly doubles the amount of green cards available today; fast-tracks U.S. STEM advanced degrees to green card; recaptures past unused green cards; creates new 120K-250K merit-based green card cap. • Non-Immigrant Visas: 115K-180K H-1B Cap; 25K H-1B cap exemption; fast tracks bachelor’s and advanced degree graduates; H-4 work authorization; 6th and 8th year L-1 visas; new outplacement, recruitment, prevailing wage requirements.

10. Skills Visa Act (H.R. 2131) • Green Cards: Provides some new green cards for U.S. STEM PhDs or master’s degrees. • Non-immigrant Visas: 155K H-1B cap; 40K H-1B cap exemption; fast tracks U.S. STEM bachelor’s/advanced degree graduates; employers to pay higher wages for certain visas. • Trusted Employer: Allows qualifying employers to register for a single filing process for information that does not change frequently over time, saving resources filed with each petition.

11. Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 1772) Mandatory E-Verify • Preemption of state E-verify laws • E-Verify use required for all employers within two years • No certainty in verifying the worker is who they claim to be

12. Immigration Reform – SHRM and ACIP • SHRM/ACIP are focusing our advocacy efforts on three major areas: • Increase system efficiency through, among other improvements, creating a “Trusted Employer” system; • Provide access to highly educated and skilled talent by leaving intact green card provisions and further improving H-1B and L-1 visa provisions to ensure the temporary high-skilled visa system works for employers and; • Give employers certainty in hiring through enabling a single, federal, entirely electronic employment verification system that protects against identity theft through knowledge-based authentication (KBA).

13. Immigration Reform Specifically, we are seeking an amendment that would: • Streamline the employment verification process with a voluntary identity authentication mechanism as a fully available option to employers for employment verification within 18 months of enactment. • The voluntary identity authentication program will use multi-dimensional technology to verify an individual’s identity through publicly available databases (including Social Security, Homeland Security, U.S.-VISIT and passport and visa). • This voluntary authentication program replaces a four-stage, document driven process with modern tools to prevent the use of stolen identities to achieve work approval. • This new approach of identity authentication is needed because the verification system in the bill remains vulnerable to identity theft.

14. Immigration Reform- Senate Portman Tester Amendment • Creation of a fully electronic verification system that integrates the paper-based Form I-9 into the E-Verify system and moves toward a more secure system that authenticates identity and verifies employment eligibility providing better certainty that the person being hired is authorized to work in the U.S. • Providing employers with a voluntary option to use a knowledge-based authentication (KBA) system if they used it for 100 percent of their new-hire verifications to assure the highest level of certainty, significantly improving the prevention of identity theft in the employment verification process. • Strengthening the safe harbor for employers for decisions made based on information provided by the E-Verify system. • The proposal was NOT considered in the Senate.

15. Immigration Reform – House Efforts • Support the Identity Authentication Amendment to H.R. 1772 (Legal Workforce Act) and Make E-Verify More Reliable, Secure • H.R. 1772 mandates E-Verify for all employers, but does not provide for adequate identity authentication – failing to protect against unauthorized workers and leaving employers unfairly open to liability. • Adopt an identity authentication amendment, which would preserve H.R. 1772’s underlying E-Verify requirements and add a critical but voluntary step for employers to accurately verify identity. • A coalition of Washington, DC based organizations are meeting with House members to garner support. Representatives of the meat and poultry industry and the human resources professionals – including the Food Manufacturers Immigration Coalition (FMIC), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) – support the Identity Authentication Amendment to H.R. 1772.

16. Immigration Reform – We NEED your HELP! • The House is expected to take up immigration reform and specifically E-Verify in September. • Please meet with your House members during the August recess and urge their support of a modernized E-Verify System. • Download and Review Fact sheets (these documents may also be used as “leave-behind” sheets) • Employment Verification (http://bit.ly/SHRME-Verify) • Trusted Employer (http://bit.ly/SHRMTE)

18. http://bit.ly/SHRMDD

19. Questions on Immigration Reform?

20. Contact Us! Chatrane Birbal703-535-6476 Chatrane.Birbal@shrm.org Michael Layman 703-535-6058 Michael.Layman@shrm.org