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September 1, 2023

Despite Staggering Improper Payments, New Labor Department Report Calls for Reviving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

As America prepares to celebrate Labor Day, it’s timely to wonder what the US Department of Labor (DOL) has been up to. One noteworthy recent action was DOL’s August 21…

August 23, 2023

Labor Department Report Finds Pandemic Unemployment Program Had a Staggering 36 Percent Improper Payment Rate

On August 21, the US Department of Labor (DOL) released its long-awaited “improper payment report” on the troubled Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. PUA was an unprecedented federal unemployment benefit program that…

August 14, 2023

Tracking Plans to Make Pandemic Benefit Expansions Permanent

In 2008, former White House Chief of Staff and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel famously said what has come to be known as Rahm’s rule: “You never want a serious crisis to go to…

May 11, 2023

The House Acts to Recover More Pandemic Unemployment Fraud

FacebookTwitterLinkedIn This week, the House is considering Republican-authored legislation (H.R. 1163, the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act) designed to promote more recovery of fraudulent unemployment checks paid during the pandemic,…

May 2, 2023

In Next Recession, Don’t Let Uncle Sam Be Uncle Sucker Again

Following recent bank failures, expectations for a recession have revived. If unemployment rises significantly, Congress will likely re-open its stimulus policy playbook — including by extending unemployment benefits. Yet given an increased…

December 9, 2022

“Automatic Stimulus”: How It Would Have Increased the Record Unemployment Benefits Paid During the Great Recession and Pandemic

Key Points During the pandemic, a series of temporary federal programs that operated from March 2020 until September 2021 provided record unemployment benefit expansions. While those temporary programs followed the…

September 21, 2022

Lessons from the Unprecedented Fraud and Abuse of the Unemployment Benefits System During the Pandemic

Chairman DeSaulnier, Ranking Member Allen, and other members of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, thank you for inviting me to testify at this morning’s hearing examining the…