HB3294 S JUD AMT #1 3-31

Dean  7824

The Committee on the Judiciary moved to amend the bill by striking out the title and substituting therefor a new title, to read as follows:

Eng. House Bill 3294—A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated §21A-2D-1, §21A-2D-2, §21A-2D-3, §21A-2D-4, §21A-2D-5, §21A-2D-6,  §21A-2D-7, §21A-2D-8, and §21A-2D-9; amending said code by adding thereto a new article designated §21A-6B-1, §21A-6B-2, §21A-6B-3, §21A-6B-4, §21A-6B-5, §21A-6B-6, and §21A-6B-7; all generally relating to unemployment insurance; creating the Unemployment Insurance Program Integrity Act; providing short title; providing definitions; requiring the commissioner, on a weekly basis, to check unemployment insurance rolls against Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s list of imprisoned individuals, check new hire records against the National Directory of New Hires, and check unemployment insurance rolls against a commercially available database that provides cross-matching functions to verify eligibility for unemployment benefits; providing for data sharing between Workforce West Virginia and other departments, agencies, or divisions; providing for action by bureau to make new eligibility determinations; requiring commissioner to implement internal administrative policies regarding the recovery of fraudulent unemployment overpayments, cooperative agreements with the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate unemployment fraud, and recover overpayments of unemployment benefits; providing a mechanism for an employer to contact Workforce when an employee is offered their job back but refuses to be rehired; reporting of relevant data, to the extent permitted by federal law, by commissioner to the Legislature; providing for rulemaking; providing an effective date; establishing the Short Time Compensation Program within Workforce West Virginia; defining terms; requiring the commissioner to establish and implement a short-time compensation program by July 1, 2023; requiring program to meet applicable federal and state law; providing that an employer that wishes to participate submit an application; requiring the commissioner to develop an employer application form to request approval of a plan and an approval process to participate in the program; establishing requirements for an application; providing procedure for commissioner approval or disapproval of a plan; providing for the effective date of a plan, expiration of a plan, revocation of a plan, and modification of a plan; establishing employee eligibility requirements to receive short-time compensation under a plan; prescribing employee benefits and limitations on benefits; and providing for rulemaking.

Adopted

Rejected