There have been a few changes in HR law since I got out of the game in '06. A federal COBRA subsidy came and went. The 60-day requirement to be eligible for COBRA is gone, you can be insured for one day, then get fired, and you're eligible for another 18 months. (The logical effect of this will be longer waiting periods for coverage to start after hire.)

Yesterday the admin was filing my I9, the proof of right to work form. "I didn't notice, your passport expired," she said. I said it's okay, it says right on the instructions that an expired passport is fine since once a citizen, always a citizen. Then I got to thinking, because there is a new form, and sure enough, in 2009, they changed the law and at the top of the form, added "all documents must be unexpired". Why the change? According to Homeland Security, it "makes examining documents easier" since some expired documents were okay and others weren't. What they mean is easier to collect fines from employers.

Employers such as the Department of Commerce. In 2010, they accepted my expired passport as proof of right to work for the census!