After a full day of tinkering with legislation to have West Virginia business owners confirm a new hire’s eligibility to work in the United States, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed it out about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday with no debate.
There almost certainly would have been debate, except that Senator Mike Azinger, R-Wood, twice called the question, which is a parliamentary procedure motion used to immediately end debate and vote on a pending proposal.
Senator Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, has been critical of the bill and asked, “Just want to make sure what we’re voting on. If we would like to deny this committee the opportunity to discuss, debate and perhaps amend, we would vote yes on the motion. If we would like to debate, discuss and possibly amend, we would vote no on the question, is that correct?”
Most of the committee voted in favor of Azinger’s motion, effectively forcing an end to discussion.
The legislation now goes to the full Senate with the conclusion of the regular legislative session approaching Saturday.
House Bill 4198, also known as the E-Verify Safe Harbor Act, mandates that all employers in the state use the federal E-Verify system to confirm the legal work authorization of new employees.
Under the bill, all employers, including private businesses, state agencies and political subdivisions, would have to register and create an E-Verify account. Employers are required to verify a new employee’s authorization to work after hiring.
The bill establishes a tiered system of penalties for employers who knowingly employ unauthorized workers, ranging from a formal warning to a civil action to permanently revoke the employer’s business license.
Each day of non-compliance and each individual employee’s missing record constitutes a separate offense, resulting in rolling fines.
Last month, the House of Delegates had a marathon debate over the E-Verify bill before narrowly passing it, 48 to 46, with some members of the Republican supermajority accusing others of being soft on illegal immigration.
In the Senate, the debate had been over whether the bill imposes burdensome requirements on small businesses with strict penalties for noncompliance.
After a couple of hours of debate on Tuesday, Judiciary Chairman Tom Willis assigned a subcommittee to work out a list of tasks: resolve code conflicts, fix circular or inconsistent definitions, define the term “seeks to employ” and ensure the bill doesn’t inadvertently make people have to report casual hires like babysitters and lawn cutters.
The subcommittee led by Senator Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, worked off and on Wednesday to amend the bill.
It’s those changes that wound up being adopted by the full Judiciary Committee without debate on Wednesday night.
Changes attempted to better define which public and private employers have to use E‑Verify, tied the legislation to existing federal I‑9 rules and carved out exemptions for smaller, newer businesses and sole proprietors, as well as employees hired before the law takes effect.
The latest version of the bill reorganizes penalties so that repeat violators can ultimately lose their business licenses while compliant E‑Verify users keep a form of safe harbor.
Weld, speaking on MetroNews Talkline earlier in the day, said the bill needed a lot of work.
“Right now I’m focused on, if this bill’s going to come out of the Capitol we’re going to get it in shape,” Weld said. “All I’ve been looking at is a bill that’s just very poorly crafted.”