Jesse Scheckner
After a brief period of discordance this week on how much to spend on E-Verify while adding a handful of more employees to the program, lawmakers appear to have settled on the smaller sum.
In its first response to the House’s proposal, the Senate has agreed to spend $1,028,420 on the state’s E-Verify program, including hiring five more full-time E-Verify workers. About 92% of the money is recurring from the state’s general fund.
The Senate originally proposed a $1,505,423 apportionment from the general fund, all recurring.
Of note, the line item has not yet been closed out, meaning more changes could come.
E-Verify is a web-based system that enables businesses to confirm their employees’ eligibility to work in the United States. The site, now under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is most broadly used to check on noncitizens.
While federal law doesn’t require the use of E-Verify for non-federal employees, some states do.
That includes Florida, which in 2023 passed a sweeping anti-illegal immigration package designed to disincentivize undocumented migrants from coming to the Sunshine State.
Among other things, the measure — sponsored by Spring Hill Sen. Blaise Ingoglia and Reps. Berny Jacques of Seminole and Kiyan Michael of Jacksonville, all Republicans — mandated that Florida employers with more than 25 employees use E-Verify to ensure each new hire is in the country legally.
Follow-up legislation the trio supported (HB 955) to expand the requirement to all businesses passed in the House on a party-line vote, but failed to gain traction in the Senate. The change would have impacted some 441,000 companies in the state that have fewer than 200 employees.
Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman attributed that to her party’s efforts in the chamber, where several other employment-related proposals died, including a bill that would have allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to work longer hours, purportedly to fill labor shortages fleeing migrants.
One notable exception to the pushback was Hollywood Sen. Jason Pizzo, who at the beginning of the 2025 Session held Berman’s title, which he relinquished while leaving the Democratic Party in an emotional Senate-floor speech in late April.
Pizzo filed a bill (SB 782) before HB 955 that included the latter measure’s aims and would have imposed significantly stricter punishments, including license revocations and $10,000 fines for noncompliance.
The bill never got a hearing, prompting Pizzo to accuse Senate Republicans of “talking tough” about illegal immigration while doing insufficient work to combat it.
“You are not serious about curbing illegal immigration,” he said, “if you continue to cower to donors and not listen to our citizens.”
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Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
