Page 37 - FCW, May 2021

$2.1 billion in UI modernization comes with oversight
The Labor Department is seek-
ing $100 million in its fiscal 2022 budget to help states modernize the IT systems they use to administer unemployment insurance (UI). That request is in addition to the $2 bil- lion already allocated for the same purpose in the American Rescue Plan Act.
During a recent House hearing devoted to the depart- ment’s budget, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh stressed the urgency of overhauling states’ UI systems while
also emphasizing the importance of over- seeing and measuring the success of those investments.
“These invest-
ments focus on deep
needs...that have
been clearly needed and often cruelly exposed by this pandemic, but they’re not new,” he said.
Walsh has been vocal about his commitment to modernizing unem- ployment technology since President Joe Biden nominated him to lead the department. When the number of applicants for unemployment benefits spiked during the pandem- ic, many states’ antiquated systems were overwhelmed, and people faced long delays in receiving pay- ments. Labor’s internal watchdog and many members of Congress have called on the department to take a more active, central role in UI administration.
“This will be one of the top areas that I work on as secretary of Labor,” he said. “We have to have a system that works for everyone.”
At the recent hearing on Capitol Hill, he told lawmakers that $600 million to $700 million of the $2 billion in the American Rescue Plan Act is slated for technical assistance
I heard every single day about somebody waiting to get unemploy- ment benefits” when he was mayor of Boston.
However, Walsh also acknowl- edged that the federal government must closely oversee an investment of this size and ensure the success of states’ UI systems. “We, the Depart-
ment of Labor, need to put a process, a check and balance in place
so that we can monitor these systems across the country to make sure they’re working because, again, a $2 billion investment and then...another $100 million in this budget, that’s a large invest- menttomakeinaUI system and get nothing back for it.”
Some lawmak- ers want to ensure that the money
states receive to update their UI sys- tems is used as effectively as pos- sible. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) intro- duced a bill in February that would give the Labor Department funds
to develop modular technology solutions to common UI problems — such as enrollment, eligibility and claims — so that states could easily create modern systems.
Wyden, Horsford and other Democrats have encouraged Walsh to use the bill as a guide to spending the funds allocated in the American Rescue Plan Act.
— Natalie Alms
for states, but during questioning by Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.), Walsh said the funds haven’t been spent yet.
“It often feels like ‘Groundhog Day’ where every single economic crisis, we have the same conversa- tion about how broken our unem- ployment system is,” Harder said. “My question for you is: How are we going to know if we fix it?”
In response, Walsh said: “One way you can tell if it’s fixed is the way people are treated on unem- ployment. If they need unemploy- ment benefits, they apply, they get them. And when they don’t need them anymore, they don’t get them.
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