U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) recently signed on as an original cosponsor of a Republican-led bill that would incentivize states to recover fraudulently paid federal and state unemployment compensation.
“Unemployment insurance fraud during the pandemic was widespread and unacceptable, and taxpayers footed the bill,” Sen. Blackburn said on Wednesday. “Those who broke the law in receiving these payments must be identified and held accountable.”
Sen. Blackburn is one of 14 original cosponsors of the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act, S. 1587, which U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) sponsored on May 11 with fellow cosponsors including U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Todd Young (R-IN).
If enacted, S. 1587 would permit states to keep 25 percent of recovered fraudulent overpayments of federal funds; to use recovered funds to improve program integrity and fraud prevention; and allow states to keep 5 percent of state unemployment overpayments, conditioned on meeting data matching integrity conditions and dedicating those funds to preventing future fraud, according to a bill summary provided by Sen. Blackburn’s office.
The bill also would extend the statute of limitations for criminal charges or civil actions from five years to 10 years, the summary says.
Additionally, the measure would advance efforts to recover federal funds stolen through unemployment fraud and pursue recovery of fraudulent payments by ensuring aggressive identification, investigation and prosecution of criminal fraud in pandemic unemployment programs, states the summary, and would give the federal government and states better tools to detect and prevent future fraud in federal unemployment programs.
S. 1587 is under consideration by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.