Bill Amendment: FL S1260 | 2024 | Regular Session

NOTE: For additional amemendments please see the Bill Drafting List

---

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_Substitue_Amendment_823044_Amendment_Delete_All_121838_.html

---

       Florida Senate - 2024                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 1260
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì823044}Î823044                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                                       .                                
                                       .                                
                                       .                                
                                       .                                
                                       .                                
       —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————




       —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
       The Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and
       Economic Development (Trumbull) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Substitute for Amendment (121838) (with title
    2  amendment)
    3  
    4         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    5  and insert:
    6         Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Promoting Work,
    7  Deterring Fraud Act of 2024.”
    8         Section 2. Subsection (2) of section 443.101, Florida
    9  Statutes, is amended to read:
   10         443.101 Disqualification for benefits.—An individual shall
   11  be disqualified for benefits:
   12         (2) If the Department of Commerce Economic Opportunity
   13  finds that the individual has failed without good cause to apply
   14  for available suitable work, including contacting the required
   15  number of prospective employers per week for any week of
   16  unemployment claimed in the benefit year in accordance with s.
   17  443.091, accept suitable work when offered to him or her, or
   18  return to the individual’s customary self-employment when
   19  directed by the department or return to employment when recalled
   20  to work by the individual’s employer after a temporary layoff,
   21  the disqualification continues for the full period of
   22  unemployment next ensuing after he or she failed without good
   23  cause to apply for available suitable work, accept suitable
   24  work, or return to his or her customary self-employment, and
   25  until the individual has earned income of at least 17 times his
   26  or her weekly benefit amount. The department shall by rule adopt
   27  criteria to implement this subsection, including for determining
   28  the “suitability of work,” as used in this section. In
   29  developing these rules, the department shall consider the
   30  duration of a claimant’s unemployment in determining the
   31  suitability of work and the suitability of proposed rates of
   32  compensation for available work. Further, after an individual
   33  has received 25 weeks of benefits in a single year, suitable
   34  work is a job that pays the minimum wage and is 120 percent or
   35  more of the weekly benefit amount the individual is drawing.
   36         (a) In determining whether or not any work is suitable for
   37  an individual, the department shall consider the degree of risk
   38  to the individual’s health, safety, and morals; the individual’s
   39  physical fitness, prior training, experience, prior earnings,
   40  length of unemployment, and prospects for securing local work in
   41  his or her customary occupation; and the distance of the
   42  available work from his or her residence.
   43         (b) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter,
   44  work is not deemed suitable and benefits may not be denied to
   45  any otherwise eligible individual for refusing to accept new
   46  work under any of the following conditions:
   47         1. The position offered is vacant due directly to a strike,
   48  lockout, or other labor dispute.
   49         2. The wages, hours, or other conditions of the work
   50  offered are substantially less favorable to the individual than
   51  those prevailing for similar work in the locality.
   52         3. As a condition of being employed, the individual is
   53  required to join a company union or to resign from or refrain
   54  from joining any bona fide labor organization.
   55         (c) If the department finds that an individual was rejected
   56  for offered employment as the direct result of a positive,
   57  confirmed drug test required as a condition of employment, the
   58  individual is disqualified for refusing to accept an offer of
   59  suitable work.
   60         Section 3. Section 443.1112, Florida Statutes, is created
   61  to read:
   62         443.1112 Verification of reemployment assistance benefit
   63  eligibility; detection of fraud.—
   64         (1) The Department of Commerce shall verify the identity of
   65  each claimant who applies for reemployment assistance benefits
   66  before paying any benefits to that individual.
   67         (2) For the initial claim for benefits made by a claimant
   68  and as necessary to verify a claimant’s eligibility for
   69  benefits, the department shall cross-check the information
   70  contained in the claim with information in the United States
   71  Citizenship and Immigration Services SAVE database.
   72         (3) For each week which a claimant makes a claim for
   73  benefits, including the initial claim for benefits, to verify a
   74  claimant’s eligibility for benefits the department shall cross
   75  check the information contained in the claim with all of the
   76  following sources or similar sources of information:
   77         (a) The National Association of State Workforce Agencies
   78  Integrity Data Hub.
   79         (b) The United States Department of Health and Human
   80  Services National Directory of New Hires.
   81         (c) The State Directory of New Hires created in s.
   82  409.2576.
   83         (d) The Department of Corrections inmate database.
   84         (e) The Social Security Administration Prisoner Update
   85  Processing System.
   86         (f) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National
   87  Vital Statistics System death records database.
   88         (g) The Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics
   89  death records database.
   90         (3) The department may not pay any week claimed by a
   91  claimant that has not been cross-checked against all the sources
   92  specified in subsections (2) and (3), as appropriate, or similar
   93  sources of information. However, in any week in which any of the
   94  sources specified are unavailable, the claim may be paid
   95  provided the department cross-checks the claimant’s information
   96  against the unavailable source upon its availability.
   97         (4) The department shall do all of the following:
   98         (a) Investigate any claim in this state associated with a
   99  mailing address, a bank account, an e-mail address, a telephone
  100  number, or an Internet protocol address that is also associated
  101  with another existing claim for reemployment assistance benefits
  102  in this state or another state and verify that the claim in this
  103  state is legitimate and not fraudulent before paying any
  104  benefits for the claim.
  105         (b) Scrutinize any claim in this state filed from a foreign
  106  Internet protocol address before paying any benefits for the
  107  claim.
  108         (c) Work with the United States Department of Labor, the
  109  United States Department of Justice, other state workforce
  110  agencies, the Department of Law Enforcement, the state
  111  attorneys, or the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor to share
  112  information related to fraudulent claims or attempted fraudulent
  113  claims to the extent feasible for further investigation and
  114  proceedings brought under this chapter.
  115         (d) Maintain a web page and an e-mail address through which
  116  an individual or an employer may report known or suspected
  117  violations of this chapter, including identity theft or fraud.
  118  Each year the department shall notify employers in the state of
  119  this web page and e-mail address for reporting violations.
  120         (e) Each year make available on its website a report
  121  identifying the number of fraudulent reemployment assistance
  122  claims identified for the prior year, the number of claims not
  123  paid due to successful detection of fraudulent intentions, the
  124  number of claims and the amount of reemployment assistance
  125  benefits paid against claims subsequently identified as
  126  fraudulent, the amount of fraudulent overpayments recovered, and
  127  the number of fraudulent claims referred for investigation and
  128  possible prosecution. The report must also list the sources of
  129  information that were used to cross-check claims during the
  130  reporting period.
  131         Section 4. Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section
  132  445.011, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
  133         445.011 Consumer-first workforce system.—
  134         (1) The department, in consultation with the state board,
  135  the Department of Education, and the Department of Children and
  136  Families, shall implement, subject to legislative appropriation,
  137  an automated consumer-first workforce system that improves
  138  coordination among required one-stop partners and is necessary
  139  for the efficient and effective operation and management of the
  140  workforce development system. This system shall include, but
  141  need not be limited to, the following:
  142         (b)1. An automated job-matching information system that is
  143  accessible to employers, job seekers, and other users via the
  144  Internet, which is in alignment with the implementation of 20
  145  C.F.R. s. 652.3, and that includes, at a minimum:
  146         a.1. Skill match information, including skill gap analysis;
  147  resume creation; job order creation; skill tests; job search by
  148  area, employer type, and employer name; and training provider
  149  linkage;
  150         b.2. Job market information based on surveys, including
  151  local, state, regional, national, and international occupational
  152  and job availability information; and
  153         c.3. Service provider information, including education and
  154  training providers, child care facilities and related
  155  information, health and social service agencies, and other
  156  providers of services that would be useful to job seekers.
  157         2. The job-matching information system shall use artificial
  158  intelligence generation for the purpose of matching participants
  159  to jobs and training opportunities and include a knowledge,
  160  skills, and interests assessment for the purpose of guiding
  161  participants to jobs and training opportunities.
  162         Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.
  163  
  164  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  165  And the title is amended as follows:
  166         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  167  and insert:
  168                        A bill to be entitled                      
  169         An act relating to verification of reemployment
  170         assistance benefit eligibility; providing a short
  171         title; amending s. 443.101, F.S.; making a technical
  172         change; revising circumstances under which the
  173         department disqualifies claimants from benefits;
  174         creating s. 443.1112, F.S.; requiring the department
  175         to verify claimants’ identities before paying
  176         benefits; requiring the department to cross-check
  177         certain information; providing sources against which
  178         such information is cross-checked; prohibiting
  179         benefits from being paid for claims that have not been
  180         cross-checked; providing an exception; providing
  181         duties of the department; requiring the department to
  182         maintain a web page and an e-mail address for a
  183         specified purpose and to notify employers each year of
  184         the web page and e-mail address; providing annual
  185         reporting requirements; amending s. 445.011, F.S.;
  186         requiring the department’s job-matching information
  187         system to contain certain elements; providing an
  188         effective date.