Proposal would let state agencies share data with Employment Department for Paid Leave Oregon and UI

House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards members received testimony Jan. 27 on House Bill 3022, a proposal to authorize specific state agencies to disclose information to the Oregon Employment Department to help administer Paid Leave Oregon and unemployment insurance.

"House Bill 3022 would enable other state agencies to share information with us as we administer our programs," Karen Hamelba, director of Paid Leave Oregon at the Oregon Employment Department, told the committee.

Hamelba described five main components to the bill: 1) allow joint audits with the Department of Revenue of employers' combined quarterly payroll tax reports to reduce duplicate audits; 2) authorize the Department of Revenue to automatically share self‑employment income information with the Employment Department for people who opt into Paid Leave Oregon; 3) permit Revenue to share income information reported by employers to help verify employee versus independent contractor status; 4) align new‑hire reporting from the Department of Justice Division of Child Support so Paid Leave Oregon receives the same new‑hire information unemployment insurance already receives; and 5) allow the Department of Corrections and county jails to share confinement data that they already share with unemployment insurance programs to assist eligibility determinations.

Hamelba said the bill does not include employer reporting of Paid Leave Oregon contributions on W‑2s that had been in an earlier 2023 concept and that the Department of Revenue had raised concerns about during the prior session. "This is not a new concept. This concept was brought up during the 2023 legislative session. At that time it was House Bill 2290," she said.

Lindsay Lakey, unemployment insurance division director at the Employment Department, said confidentiality statutes limit what the department can disclose and that the proposed sharing would be confined to the same statutory protections that currently apply to unemployment insurance data. "We have a specific statute on confidentiality for unemployment insurance... so this information sharing, it will be confined underneath that statute," Lakey said.

Exane Culver, representing the Department of Revenue, told the committee the Revenue Department already captures the tax and reporting data described in the bill and can implement the data exchange using existing resources as drafted. "Because it is simply sharing information we already capture, the Department is able to implement the data exchange with existing resources," Culver said.

Committee members asked about the purpose of sharing Department of Justice child‑support new‑hire data and about controls for data privacy and retention. Hamelba said the new‑hire information helps identify recently hired employees to reduce overpayments. Chair Graber asked the agencies to provide a more detailed response on data privacy controls to the committee following the hearing.

No committee vote was taken the day of the hearing; staff said a work session will be scheduled later.