The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today offered Congress several recommendations to make a national E-Verify employment verification system workable for small businesses and members of the residential construction industry.

Testifying on behalf of NAHB before the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Chris Gamvroulas, president of Ivory Development, a land acquisition and development firm based in Salt Lake City, told lawmakers that in order to adopt a nationwide E-Verify mandate, Congress must ensure that businesses of all sizes can best be served under a national requirement.

“Approximately 80% of NAHB members have fewer than 10 employees and often lack human resources, legal departments and even office-based hiring processes,” said Gamvroulas. “Therefore, NAHB believes that any legislation which mandates the use of E-Verify nationwide must work for the smallest employer as well as it works for the largest.”

Gamvroulas said that NAHB supports the concept of a national E-Verify system as long as it includes the following provisions to protect both the employer and the employee:

• Maintains an employer’s responsibility for only verifying the identities of direct employers, meaning that home builders would not be required to verify their subcontractors or subcontractors’ workers.
• Provides employers safe harbors for good-faith use of the E-Verify system, including identity fraud.
• Expedites the verification process closer to an employee’s hiring date.
• Ensures that all systems requirements are accessible to small business operators, including by telephone.

“Finally, any legislation which mandates the use of E-Verify nationwide must include a strong pre-emption clause, preventing state and local governments from creating and enforcing their own verification requirements for employers,” said Gamvroulas. “If employers are required to use the federal E-Verify program, they must be assured there is only one set of rules for compliance.”

Gamvroulas also told lawmakers that E-Verify is part of a broader workforce issue facing the housing sector, namely the significant labor shortage in the construction industry that is delaying home building projects and raising housing costs.

“A recent study conducted by NAHB, the Home Builders Institute and the University of Denver found that labor shortages are extending the construction timeline of the average single-family home by nearly two months,” said Gamvroulas. “The direct cost impact of extended construction times amounts to $2.66 billion annually, meaning higher carrying costs for home builders and fewer affordable options for home buyers.”

To advance solutions that invest in our nation’s domestic workforce and promote opportunities for Americans to seek well-paying and meaningful careers in the trades, Gamvroulas urged Congress to immediately pass the CONSTRUCTS Act. This bipartisan legislation pending in the House and Senate would ensure residential construction training providers, such as community colleges and trade schools, have the support they need to encourage students to seek careers in the home building industry.

And with foreign-born workers accounting for roughly 25% of the construction labor force, Gamvroulas said that policymakers should support sensible immigration policies that protect our nation’s borders while also providing a pathway for workers to fill this critical labor gap.