On Friday, April 17, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would again postpone the mandate that all federal contractors (and their subcontractors) verify their employees’ employment eligibility using E-Verify, the government’s online electronic employment eligibility verification system. The requirement, which was supposed to have originally gone into effect on January 15. The Bush White House delayed it until February 20, and in late January, the Obama White House delayed it again, until May 21. The current delay would push the mandate back even further, this time until June 30.

After first being published as a final rule in the fall of 2008, the requirement that government contractors use E-Verify received criticism from a number of groups. Last fall, business groups that include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Society for Human Resource Management filed suit to block the implementation of the requirement on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.