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Committee releases bill to expand Department of Labor background checks after internal hiring lapse
Summary
The House Labor Committee voted to release House Bill 20, which would expand fingerprint-based background checks across several Department of Labor divisions and use the federal RAPBACK monitoring system when available; DOL staff said the measure responds to a prior hiring incident and preserves agency discretion on employment decisions.
The House Labor Committee released House Bill 20 on a roll-call vote after department officials told legislators the measure would extend fingerprint-based background checks beyond employees with access to federal tax information to include the divisions of Unemployment Insurance, Paid Leave, IT staff, workers' compensation second-injury fund personnel, and vocational rehabilitation counselors.
The bill, introduced by the committee sponsor, was presented as a response to a recent internal hiring incident at the Department of Labor, when an employee's felony appeared on their record only after a later review. Rachel Tarni of the Department of Labor told the committee the federal RAPBACK continuous-monitoring program would notify agencies automatically once full state and federal feeds are available, but that the state is not yet fully receiving RAPBACK data.
"Once the state receives state and federal RAPBACK information, I think we can assess that as an agency to see if we need to continue to re-background-check that individual or if the RAPBACK is sufficient," Tarni said, noting implementation could take up to a year for FBI fingerprint flows to be available.
Committee members asked whether promotions or transfers would require fresh fingerprints even after RAPBACK is in place. Tarni said that, as written, the bill requires fingerprints when an employee moves into a position covered by the expanded checks; she added the department would review that practice after RAPBACK is implemented and might change it.
Tarni also provided staffing context: the Department of Labor employs about 550 people; roughly 20 percent of positions currently require background checks and the proposed expansion would raise that to about 40 percent in the department. She emphasized the department would use discretion in assessing whether specific crimes barred employment, saying prohibitions would be tied to job duties (for example, fraud convictions for positions handling funds or personal identifiable information).
Representative Lambert and others stressed second‑chance and social‑equity considerations while noting public-safety and confidentiality concerns. No members of the public signed up to comment in person or virtually on the bill during the meeting.
A motion to release House Bill 20 passed on the roll call; the chair announced the bill had received the required votes and was released from committee. The committee did not take final floor action; the release sends the bill onward in the legislative process.
