Lankford Introduces Bill to Improve Unemployment Insurance

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), along with their colleagues, introduced legislation that would make key improvements to the nation’s unemployment insurance system. The legislation, titled the Unemployment Insurance Integrity and Accessibility Act, would focus on program administration and integrity to combat fraud and improve access to benefits for eligible workers.

“The sudden increase in unemployment benefits during the pandemic led to a drastic increase in fraud. Theft through unemployment fraud cannot be ignored. I am fighting to extend the timeline for the government to charge criminals so that we can recover fraudulent funds and prevent fraud in the future,” said Lankford. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic showed that unemployment insurance systems were too often unable to keep up with the needs of American workers and too vulnerable to fraud,” said Crapo and Wyden. “This bipartisan bill will go a long way to making the UI system more accessible to workers who need it and protecting taxpayer dollars by recouping and preventing fraud.”

The bill is co-sponsored by Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Jim Risch (R-ID), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Todd Young (R-IN), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Lankford has sounded the alarm on rising fraud for unemployment insurance and urged support for state-level prevention. He alsopreviously sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and former Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Marty Walsh requesting an update on the Biden Administration’s efforts to recover fraudulent benefits obtained through the temporary COVID-19 unemployment insurance programs and also introduced the Chase COVID Unemployment Fraud Act of 2022 to recover funds from unchecked unemployment fraud and provide incentives for states to recover fraudulent payments.

Bill text is available here and a summary is below: 

The Unemployment Insurance Integrity and Accessibility Act

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program was both difficult for workers to access and vulnerable to fraud. The Unemployment Insurance Integrity and Accessibility Act would prevent future UI fraud and help ensure those who defrauded the system during the pandemic are brought to justice. It would also provide relief for claimants who were overpaid and cannot afford repayment or face other hardships, and take steps to make UI systems more accessible to eligible workers.

Unemployment Insurance Fraud and Overpayment Recovery

• Extends the federal statute of limitations for pandemic unemployment insurance fraud to 10 years (from 5 years under current law).
• Allows states to waive overpayments of pandemic unemployment insurance that have not been recovered as of date of enactment in non-fraud cases where repayment would be contrary to equity and good conscience. States are required to waive these non-fraud overpayments if no overpayment is established by December 31, 2025.
• Allows states to retain five percent of recovered overpayments of unemployment compensation and five percent of employer unemployment taxes collected as part of a state investigation. States may retain up to 25 percent of overpayment recoveries of fraudulent pandemic unemployment overpayments. Allows states to invest retained funds in improving unemployment insurance administration. 

Unemployment Insurance Program Integrity

• Requires states to crossmatch unemployment compensation claims against the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) to prevent claimants from collecting UI if they are working.
• Requires states to utilize systems such as the State Information Data Exchange (SIDES) to allow electronic transmission of accurate claim information between employers and states.
• Requires states to use crossmatching systems such as the Integrity Data Hub (IDH) to identify potentially fraudulent unemployment claims.
• Requires states to crossmatch unemployment compensation claims against the Social Security Administration’s prisoner database to prevent fraud.
• Requires the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations to ensure proper implementation of crossmatching requirements.

Unemployment Insurance Administration and Technology

• Implements new access and technology requirements for online claim filing systems and in-person alternatives.
• Requires states to provide guidance to employers to facilitate their eligible workers’ access to benefits.
• Provides for oversight of federal investments into the administration of UI programs. 

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