Rand Paul echoes 2011 objection to E-Verify

Last Sunday Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on a Sunday show made some comments about requiring businesses to use E-Verify to determine if a worker has the legal status to be hired. 

Back in 2011 the South Carolina Legislature passed a bill, over the strong objection of the S.C. Small Business Chamber, that requires almost all businesses in the state to use E-Verify or face penalties.  We warned the General Assembly that small businesses were going to be the ones caught not in compliance with the law. 

That apparently is what has happened.  The S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation reports that in the first year on enforcement of the law, 323 businesses (mostly if not all small) were cited for not using E-Verify for new hires and were put on probation.  These are only the ones the agency found in random audits.  The actual numbers of small businesses in non-compliance is probably much, much higher. 

But even if all the state’s businesses eventually comply with the law, it still is an extra burden the state has put on small businesses in order to carry out an immigration policy for South Carolina.  The law is not intended to benefit businesses.

“If the state wants to assist the federal government in verifying citizenship, it should do the work itself instead of mandating the burden be put on small business,” I said in 2011. 

Subsequent to the law passing I did find out that the federal E-Verify law only allows businesses to use the system.  My efforts to get our members of Congress to correct this problem did not generate any interest except from Congressman Trey Gowdy’s office.  But even his office saw too many problems in opening up the E-Verify issue in Congress again.

So it was good to hear Senator Paul make the following remarks on one of last Sunday’s morning shows.

 “It’s not that I’m opposed to some sort of database check….I just would prefer the government to be the policeman and not the businessman.” 

Good for Senator Paul.  I hope he will put forward the effort in Congress to change the law so that South Carolina can lift the E-Verify burden off our small businesses and put it where it belongs….on state government.

SC GOP House members attack small businesses

In case you missed Wednesday afternoon’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, all five of our Republican members cast a vote that would result in either small businesses losing health insurance tax credits or forcing them to change health insurance plans.  H.R. 3 passed largely along party lines.

All of these elected leaders—Joe Wilson, Tim Scott, Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney—were made aware of the potential negative impact of H.R. 3 on small businesses. A letter from The South Carolina Small Business Chamber opposing the bill was widely circulated.

Before the vote I participated in a press conference in front of the Capitol with Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Judy Chu (D-CA) calling on the House to stop the direct attack on small businesses. Rep. Schakowsky even read excerpts of my comments on the House floor during the debate.

Our Republican House members have some “splaining” to do. After you read my comments below, call their offices and let them know that you won’t forget how they put partisan politics above the interests of their small business constituents.

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Frank Knapp, President and CEO, South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce – Statement at Press Conference in Opposition to HR 3, 5/4/2011

A story yesterday in LifeSiteNews.Com said that H.R. 3 can have a historic impact on the future of the pro-life movement.

But what H.R. 3 really is – is an attempt to roll-back the historic small business health insurance tax credits created by the Affordable Care Act.

When the House voted to eliminate and defund the entire Affordable Care Act earlier this year, we could rationalize that this great benefit for small business was just collateral damage.

After all, everybody likes making health insurance more affordable for small businesses through tax credits.

Even my congressman, Joe Wilson, told me that he would support the small business health insurance tax credits in the Affordable Care Act replacement legislation.

But small businesses can no longer think of themselves as collateral damage in the efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act.

H.R. 3 is a direct attack on small business.

Even supporters of the bill have no response to our criticism that H.R. 3 is a “slap in the face to millions of small businesses now offering health insurance to employees and eligible for the new tax credits”.

Instead, as reported in the LifeSiteNews.Com story, they just change the subject and talk about H.R. 3 being tax neutral.

Not to small business it’s not. For many it will be a tax increase and for all small businesses wanting to receive the tax credits, H.R. 3 will increase their costs.

Should H.R. 3 become law, small business owners who want the health insurance tax credits will face a difficult situation:

1. Small businesses will have to take considerable time to learn medical terminology to try to determine if their health plans cover any service that could be considered an abortion service. I challenge members of Congress to try to do this.

2. If small business owners don’t choose to spend the tens of hours away from running their business, at great cost, they will turn to their insurance agent. Today, it is unlikely that these agents have the knowledge about every possible abortion service that might be in a policy. Once they ramp up, they will still have to sit down with the small business owner to review the policy.

3. And, if the conclusion is that a health plan does include some abortion service, the small business owner has another time consuming decision to make.

a. Take a tax increase because she wants to keep the health plan she has; or

b. Probably pay higher premiums under a new health plan because of new underwriting and new provisions that now might be required in policies.

Supporters of H.R. 3 are aware of the costs to small business. They know that H.R. 3 targets small businesses for punitive action while ignoring big businesses that also receive tax benefits from their health plans that might also include some abortion service.

So, let me make this very clear – A vote for H.R. 3 is a direct attack on small business.

Every Representative who loudly proclaims their love for small business because “we are the backbone of the economy,” now can put their vote where their mouth is – their true support for small business will be judged on their H.R. 3 vote.
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House Member Name- DC Office Phone Number

• Representative Tim Scott (R - 01) 202-225-3176

• Representative Joe Wilson (R - 02) 202-225-2452

• Representative Jeff Duncan (R - 03) 202-225-5301

• Representative Trey Gowdy (R - 04) 202-225-6030

• Representative Mick Mulvaney (R - 05) 202-225-5501

D.C. trip review



Frank Knapp with Danny Herrera, Media Matters



My trip to D.C. this week was very successful. I participated in a Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference panel discussion sponsored by the American Sustainable Business Council on small business and good jobs, met my friends at Media Matters, and talked about the threat of corporate money in campaigns with Common Cause folks.

 I also discussed the need to promote programs to help our country’s small manufacturers with staff from the offices of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and South Carolina Representatives Tim Scott, Jeff Duncan and Trey Gowdy.

Wednesday afternoon I joined numerous other members of the American Sustainable Business Council for an extended meeting at the U.S. Department of Labor with Secretary Hilda Solis.

 

Frank with Mary Boyle (L) and Eileen Toback (R) of Common Cause



My brief comments to Secretary Solis emphasized that need to invigorate our domestic manufacturing if we want to create the jobs we need. I pointed out that 90% of manufacturers in South Carolina have fewer than 100 employees and 84% have less than 50 workers making manufacturing a small business sector in our state as it probably is in the rest of the country. I stressed the need to stop giving tax incentives for offshoring jobs and for the creation of a national manufacturing policy that includes strengthening the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program and other efforts to jumpstart our manufacturing sector.

Below is a blog about this meeting from the co-founder of the American Sustainable Business Council and Seventh Generation, Jeffrey Hollender:

The Bright Side of Government

February 9, 2011

Today for close to one and a half hours the Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis sat patiently, deeply engaged as she listened to the challenges and opportunities small business faces in a country dominated by the influence of large multinational corporations. These small companies believe in livable wages, health care for all, and reversing the concentration of wealth that threatens to tear our society apart.

Almost 20 of us sat around the table representing the 65,000 companies that are part of the American Sustainable Business Council, businesses that are all committed to a just, equitable and sustainable economy. We joined by no fewer than six representatives of Secretary Solis’s senior staff. As the conversation circled around the table the Secretary made notes, asked questions, recommended opportunities for her staff to follow-up on an idea or seek more information.

The Secretary has personally surmounted many obstacles, perhaps more than anyone else in the room. A four-term congresswoman, she became the first Hispanic woman to serve as a cabinet member. Her mother worked in a toy factory, her father in a battery recycling plant, where he contracted lead poisoning.

The third of seven children, she grew up in a modest home near a giant landfill just east of Los Angeles.

Today’s dialogue helped renew my faith in government. I saw first hand deeply passionate and caring people trying desperately to do the right thing. Sometimes what’s missing from the process is us. Our voices of support embolden their conviction. In a political process dominated by money, lobbyists, and self-serving interest groups the door was open for people who perhaps hadn’t fully realized how essential that are to the process of governance.