Democratic lawmakers propose overhaul of unemployment laws
MADISON – Democratic lawmakers are proposing eight ways to change the state’s unemployment laws to make it easier for the jobless to get benefits — a process that has failed to get money to thousands amid layoffs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The bills, which are still being drafted, don’t propose sending money quickly to the 141,000 people who have not received any benefits since being laid off weeks or months ago as an overwhelmed unemployment system processes their claims.
But the lawmakers say they seek to remove hurdles that have contributed to the lengthy delays.
“This pandemic is revealing that the challenges within the Wisconsin unemployment system are the direct result of the Walker Administration’s efforts to make collecting unemployment benefits harder,” Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley, D-Mason, said in a statement. The legislation is being proposed at a time when a third of all Wisconsin residents who filed for unemployment since the pandemic began haven’t received any of the money that’s owed to them.
The delay has had catastrophic consequences like homelessness and going without meals, according to the hundreds of people who have contacted the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in recent months.
Republican lawmakers have called on Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Department of Workforce Development Secretary Caleb Frostman to add more staff, expand call center hours, and provide forgivable loans to the thousands whose claims are still being processed — an idea Evers called a “political stunt” this week.
Assembly Republican leaders said the release of the package amounted to damage control, could open the door to fraud, and doesn’t fix the backlog — opposition that dooms the ideas.
“This package is basically Democrats’
attempt to divert attention away from Governor Evers’ abysmal record of not processing UI claims correctly or in a timely fashion,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said.
“The Evers’ administration’s response to this unemployment crisis has been nothing short of a dumpster fire,” Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, said in a statement. “The tired proposals trotted out today would only serve to expand eligibility to an already strained system and fuel the flames of the problem at hand.”
Democratic lawmakers’ proposals overturn measures signed into law by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, including repealing a law that allows employers to deny unemployment benefits to fired employees over errors not considered inadvertent.
Other bills would eliminate a oneweek waiting period claimants must wait before receiving benefits and abandon a law that bars people receiving Social Security benefits for disabilities from also receiving unemployment benefits.
“Instead of clinging to their record of making UI worse for workers time and again, GOP should join us in passing these commonsense proposals,” Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-West Point, said in a tweet in response to Steineke’s criticism.
The Evers Administration also announced it has reassigned 100 more state employees to work in the Department of Workforce Development to help process unemployment claims.
That comes after DWD increased its staffing by more than 2,700 through vendors and reassigning state employees since March 14, two days after Evers issued a public health emergency in Wisconsin that triggered scores of business closures and thousands of job losses in the subsequent weeks.
Employment is rebounding in Wisconsin as more businesses reopen. In June, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.5%, the DWD announced Thursday — down from 12% in May and from the pandemic’s high of 13.6% in April.
But cases of coronavirus are surging in parts of the state, raising fears that more businesses could decide to close again.
DWD Secretary Caleb Frostman said the proposals would “help ensure Wisconsinites
who lose work through no fault of their own will experience economic stability sooner.”
“The unprecedented economic ramifications of COVID-19 have brought the complexities of Wisconsin’s Unemployment Insurance system to the forefront of the state conversation,” he said in a statement.
The proposals also would:
Suspend until June 30, 2021, a law that prevents claimants from receiving benefits if they receive more than $500 in wages per week.
Reduce the number of work searches a claimant must perform per week from four to two and bars the DWD from requiring more than two searches without legislation.
Allow claimants receiving extended occupational training to be eligible for extended unemployment benefits at the same time.
Changes how DWD defines “suitable work” that unemployment benefit recipients must accept and what is considered an acceptable reason not to accept that work.
Republicans who control the state Legislature have not taken steps to return to the Capitol before late fall to pass new legislation in response to the pandemic, including the unemployment claim backlog.
They have instead called on Evers to provide loans using federal aid and to make changes to the unemployment system without legislation.
Earlier this spring, lawmakers passed a coronavirus relief package that temporarily suspended the one-week waiting period and DWD temporarily suspended the state’s work search requirement.
Organizers of a Sunday rally at the Capitol to protest the backlog of claims said Evers should say what changes he wants to help guide the Legislature.
“While at face value, the Republican (loan) proposal could be a lifeline for many Wisconsinites that are suffering, there are many questions about who would launch the program, run it, monitor it, and coordinate it with the DWD,” organizers Ashley Green, Brett Lipshutz and Chenon Times-Rainwater wrote in an email to the Journal Sentinel. “There is the overwhelming concern that it would add another program with the potential for delay and confusion.”