Overview
FAR 22.1801 provides the foundational terminology for the Employment Eligibility Verification (E-Verify) subpart, defining which products, employees, and geographic locations fall under these compliance requirements.
Key Rules
- COTS Items: To qualify as a Commercially Available Off-the-Shelf item, a product must be a commercial product sold in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace and offered to the government without modification. Bulk cargo (e.g., loose agricultural or petroleum products) is explicitly excluded.
- Employee Assigned to the Contract: This refers to personnel hired after November 6, 1986 (or November 27, 2009, in the CNMI) who perform direct work in the United States.
- Exclusion of Indirect Labor: Personnel performing support, indirect, or overhead functions are not considered "assigned to the contract" if they do not perform substantial duties related to the contract.
- Broad Subcontract Scope: The definitions of "subcontract" and "subcontractor" are expansive, encompassing all tiers of the supply chain and including purchase orders and their subsequent modifications.
- Geographic Jurisdiction: For the purposes of this subpart, the "United States" is specifically defined to include the 50 States, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Practical Implications
- Compliance Filtering: Contractors can reduce administrative burdens by correctly identifying "indirect" or "support" staff who are exempt from E-Verify requirements because they do not perform substantial duties on the contract.
- Flow-down Requirements: Prime contractors must recognize that the broad definition of "subcontract" necessitates flowing down E-Verify clauses to almost all vendors and suppliers, unless the items being procured meet the specific criteria for COTS.