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Employment Security commissioner Cammie Feek outlines agency workload and pandemic-era response
Summary
Cammie Feek, commissioner of the Employment Security Department, told the Senate committee she supports reconfirmation and described ESD’s pandemic response, program workload (unemployment insurance, paid family & medical leave, WA Cares), and steps to improve service and fraud prevention.
Cammie Feek appeared before the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee for reconfirmation as commissioner of the Employment Security Department. Feek described a long career in state government and said she has led ESD through recent program launches and pandemic-era operations.
Feek told senators the department runs unemployment insurance, paid family and medical leave and collects premiums for the WA Cares long‑term care program. She said the agency has processed more than 1,100,000 paid-leave applications and paid more than $5,000,000,000 in paid-leave benefits, and that during the pandemic ESD distributed $21,700,000,000 in unemployment benefits to about 1,200,000 workers. Feek said the agency recovered roughly $432,600,000 of approximately $647,000,000 stolen to pandemic-era fraud.
Senators asked about ESD’s capacity to operate multiple large programs, the agency’s ability to scale if unemployment rises, and advertising and outreach for WA Cares. Feek said she created an Insurance Services leader to coordinate across programs, that paid-leave payment wait times have improved and that ESD has tools to scale during peaks, including a trained roster of adjudicators who may be reactivated. She confirmed federal worker claims had increased year over year but remained relatively small in absolute numbers and said the agency plans webinars and hiring events targeted to federal workers.
Feek also said WA Cares implementation is on the agency schedule for benefit availability in 2026 and that premium collection is underway. Senators raised staffing and actuarial capacity concerns; Feek said the agency has an actuary working across programs and would request additional resources if needed. The committee did not record a confirmation vote at the hearing.
