On June 6, 2008, President Bush amended Executive Order 12989 to direct all federal departments and agencies to require contractors to agree to use an electronic employment eligibility verification system to verify the employment eligibility of (i) all people hired during the contract term by the contractor to perform employment duties within the United States and (ii) all persons assigned by the contractor to perform work within the United States on the federal contract. Executive Order 12989 does not address whether or not subcontractors also will be required to use E-Verify, but the order does grant rulemaking authority to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

At a press conference on June 9, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff designated E-Verify as the electronic employment eligibility verification system that all federal contractors must use for compliance with Executive Order 12989, as amended. E-Verify is operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in partnership with the Social Security Administration. Federal departments and agencies are already enrolling with E-Verify to check the status of all new hires within the federal workforce.

On June 9, agencies responsible for federal acquisition regulations (FAR) sent a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to the Federal Register to solicit public comment for 60 days on proposed changes to the FAR. The FAR will be amended to the extent necessary to “implement the debarment responsibility, the employment eligibility verification responsibility, and other related responsibilities.”