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Committee hears HB54 to remove commissioner signature from manual unemployment checks
Summary
House Bill 54 would remove the Department of Labor and Industry commissioner's signature requirement from manually issued unemployment warrants and checks; sponsor and agency witnesses said the change reduces unnecessary work and conforms with federal guidance.
Representative Gary Perry introduced House Bill 54 to the Senate State Administration Committee, saying the measure would eliminate an outdated requirement in Montana Code Annotated that the commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry also sign manually issued unemployment insurance checks. "This will really eliminate a lot of extra effort and cost and still gets the job done the way it needs to," Perry said, describing the signature requirement as a low‑value administrative step.
Sarah Swanson, commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, urged support and said the change aligns practice with other state accounts that require only the treasurer's signature. Swanson told the committee that about 10 percent of unemployment payments are manual checks; using figures from the department's weekly report she said 9,960 payments were issued in a recent week and 966 of those were manual checks. Swanson said the U.S. Department of Labor reviewed the practice and found no need for two signatures on manually issued unemployment checks.
A Treasury official testified the change would align operations and remove a redundant step; treasury staff said their daily reconciliation process already verifies all disbursements and that removing the commissioner signature would not weaken existing controls.
No opponents appeared in committee. Committee members asked about controls and safeguards; DLI and Treasury witnesses described verification steps in the unemployment payment workflow and daily bank reconciliation. The bill sponsor said the statutory requirement dates to 1937 and that removing it would streamline operations when leadership changes require re‑testing and reprinting checks.
Ending: The committee closed the hearing on HB54 after brief questioning and testimony from agency witnesses.
