Congress suggests biometrics for job eligibility testing
19 August, 2009
category: Biometrics
At a hearing held by the United States’ Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, various law makers, both Democrat and Republican, have expressed support for a proposed program that would require biometric employment eligibility verification be performed on those seeking jobs in the U.S., according to an IDG Compterworld article. Specifically, the program cites strengthening the already-in-place E-Verify system to perform these duties.
New York Senator Charles Schumer, chairman of the subcommittee, has expressed doubts as to the usefulness of the system in such a case citing that it currently only checks given data against those stored in the Social Security Administration and IRS databases. He was careful to point out, though, that he is not against the proposal, but believes that a new, fool-proof system would need to be in place that could perform such duties.
Two areas of concern for lawmakers are costs and groups fighting implementation of government-run biometric systems saying they are a breach of personal security. Others still echo the ideas of Schumer saying that the current E-Verify system is flawed to such a point that making the system mandatory would result in upwards of 600,000 workers being denied employment eligibility.
Read the full story here.