Bill Amendment: FL S1260 | 2024 | Regular Session

NOTE: For additional amemendments please see the Bill Drafting List

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Bill Title: Verification of Reemployment Assistance Benefit Eligibility

Status: 2024-03-08 - Died in Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development [S1260 Detail]

Download: Florida-2024-S1260-Senate_Committee_Amendment_121838.html

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       Florida Senate - 2024                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 1260
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì121838<Î121838                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
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       The Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and
       Economic Development (Trumbull) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Promoting Work,
    6  Deterring Fraud Act of 2024.”
    7         Section 2. Subsection (2) of section 443.101, Florida
    8  Statutes, is amended to read:
    9         443.101 Disqualification for benefits.—An individual shall
   10  be disqualified for benefits:
   11         (2) If the Department of Commerce Economic Opportunity
   12  finds that the individual has failed without good cause to apply
   13  for available suitable work, including contacting the required
   14  number of prospective employers per week for any week of
   15  unemployment claimed in the benefit year in accordance with s.
   16  443.091, accept suitable work when offered to him or her, or
   17  return to the individual’s customary self-employment when
   18  directed by the department or return to employment when recalled
   19  to work by the individual’s employer after a temporary layoff,
   20  the disqualification continues for the full period of
   21  unemployment next ensuing after he or she failed without good
   22  cause to apply for available suitable work, accept suitable
   23  work, or return to his or her customary self-employment, and
   24  until the individual has earned income of at least 17 times his
   25  or her weekly benefit amount. The department shall by rule adopt
   26  criteria to implement this subsection, including for determining
   27  the “suitability of work,” as used in this section. In
   28  developing these rules, the department shall consider the
   29  duration of a claimant’s unemployment in determining the
   30  suitability of work and the suitability of proposed rates of
   31  compensation for available work. Further, after an individual
   32  has received 25 weeks of benefits in a single year, suitable
   33  work is a job that pays the minimum wage and is 120 percent or
   34  more of the weekly benefit amount the individual is drawing.
   35         (a) In determining whether or not any work is suitable for
   36  an individual, the department shall consider the degree of risk
   37  to the individual’s health, safety, and morals; the individual’s
   38  physical fitness, prior training, experience, prior earnings,
   39  length of unemployment, and prospects for securing local work in
   40  his or her customary occupation; and the distance of the
   41  available work from his or her residence.
   42         (b) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter,
   43  work is not deemed suitable and benefits may not be denied to
   44  any otherwise eligible individual for refusing to accept new
   45  work under any of the following conditions:
   46         1. The position offered is vacant due directly to a strike,
   47  lockout, or other labor dispute.
   48         2. The wages, hours, or other conditions of the work
   49  offered are substantially less favorable to the individual than
   50  those prevailing for similar work in the locality.
   51         3. As a condition of being employed, the individual is
   52  required to join a company union or to resign from or refrain
   53  from joining any bona fide labor organization.
   54         (c) If the department finds that an individual was rejected
   55  for offered employment as the direct result of a positive,
   56  confirmed drug test required as a condition of employment, the
   57  individual is disqualified for refusing to accept an offer of
   58  suitable work.
   59         Section 3. Section 443.1112, Florida Statutes, is created
   60  to read:
   61         443.1112 Verification of reemployment assistance benefit
   62  eligibility.—
   63         (1) The Department of Commerce shall verify the identity of
   64  each claimant who applies for reemployment assistance benefits
   65  before paying any benefits to that individual.
   66         (2) For each week which a claimant makes a claim for
   67  benefits, the department shall cross-check the information
   68  contained in the claim with all of the following sources or
   69  similar sources of information:
   70         (a) The National Association of State Workforce Agencies
   71  Integrity Data Hub.
   72         (b) The United States Department of Health and Human
   73  Services National Directory of New Hires.
   74         (c) The State Directory of New Hires created in s.
   75  409.2576.
   76         (d) The Department of Corrections inmate database.
   77         (e) The Social Security Administration Prisoner Update
   78  Processing System.
   79         (f) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National
   80  Vital Statistics System death records database.
   81         (g) The Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics
   82  death records database.
   83         (h) The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
   84  SAVE database.
   85         (3) The department may not pay any week claimed by a
   86  claimant that has not been cross-checked against all the sources
   87  specified in subsection (2) or similar sources of information.
   88  However, in any week in which any of the sources specified in
   89  subsection (2) are unavailable, the claim may be paid provided
   90  the department cross-checks the claimant’s information against
   91  the unavailable source upon its availability.
   92         (4) The department shall do all of the following:
   93         (a) Investigate any claim in this state associated with a
   94  mailing address, a bank account, an e-mail address, a telephone
   95  number, or an Internet protocol address that is also associated
   96  with another existing claim for reemployment assistance benefits
   97  in this state or another state and verify that the claim in this
   98  state is legitimate and not fraudulent before paying any
   99  benefits for the claim.
  100         (b) Scrutinize any claim in this state filed from a foreign
  101  Internet protocol address before paying any benefits for the
  102  claim.
  103         (c) Work with the United States Department of Labor, the
  104  United States Department of Justice, other state workforce
  105  agencies, the Department of Law Enforcement, the state
  106  attorneys, or the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor to share
  107  information related to fraudulent claims or attempted fraudulent
  108  claims to the extent feasible for further investigation and
  109  proceedings brought under this chapter.
  110         (d) Maintain a web page and an e-mail address through which
  111  an individual or an employer may report known or suspected
  112  violations of this chapter, including identity theft or fraud.
  113  Each year the department shall notify employers in the state of
  114  this web page and e-mail address for reporting violations.
  115         (e) Each year make available on its website a report
  116  identifying the number of fraudulent reemployment assistance
  117  claims identified for the prior year, the number of claims not
  118  paid due to successful detection of fraudulent intentions, the
  119  number of claims and the amount of reemployment assistance
  120  benefits paid against claims subsequently identified as
  121  fraudulent, the amount of fraudulent overpayments recovered, and
  122  the number of fraudulent claims referred for investigation and
  123  possible prosecution. The report must also list the sources of
  124  information that were used to cross-check claims during the
  125  reporting period.
  126         Section 4. Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section
  127  445.011, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
  128         445.011 Consumer-first workforce system.—
  129         (1) The department, in consultation with the state board,
  130  the Department of Education, and the Department of Children and
  131  Families, shall implement, subject to legislative appropriation,
  132  an automated consumer-first workforce system that improves
  133  coordination among required one-stop partners and is necessary
  134  for the efficient and effective operation and management of the
  135  workforce development system. This system shall include, but
  136  need not be limited to, the following:
  137         (b)1. An automated job-matching information system that is
  138  accessible to employers, job seekers, and other users via the
  139  Internet, which is in alignment with the implementation of 20
  140  C.F.R. s. 652.3, and that includes, at a minimum:
  141         a.1. Skill match information, including skill gap analysis;
  142  resume creation; job order creation; skill tests; job search by
  143  area, employer type, and employer name; and training provider
  144  linkage;
  145         b.2. Job market information based on surveys, including
  146  local, state, regional, national, and international occupational
  147  and job availability information; and
  148         c.3. Service provider information, including education and
  149  training providers, child care facilities and related
  150  information, health and social service agencies, and other
  151  providers of services that would be useful to job seekers.
  152         2. The job-matching information system shall use artificial
  153  intelligence generation for the purpose of matching participants
  154  to jobs and training opportunities and include a knowledge,
  155  skills, and interests assessment for the purpose of guiding
  156  participants to jobs and training opportunities.
  157         Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.
  158  
  159  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  160  And the title is amended as follows:
  161         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  162  and insert:
  163                        A bill to be entitled                      
  164         An act relating to verification of reemployment
  165         assistance benefit eligibility; providing a short
  166         title; amending s. 443.101, F.S.; making a technical
  167         change; revising circumstances under which the
  168         department disqualifies claimants from benefits;
  169         creating s. 443.1112, F.S.; requiring the department
  170         to verify claimants’ identities before paying
  171         benefits; requiring the department to cross-check
  172         certain information; providing sources against which
  173         such information is cross-checked; prohibiting
  174         benefits from being paid for claims that have not been
  175         cross-checked; providing an exception; providing
  176         duties of the department; requiring the department to
  177         maintain a web page and an e-mail address for a
  178         specified purpose and to notify employers each year of
  179         the web page and e-mail address; providing annual
  180         reporting requirements; amending s. 445.011, F.S.;
  181         requiring the department’s job-matching information
  182         system to contain certain elements; providing an
  183         effective date.