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Chair LaHood and witnesses press Congress to reclaim nearly $1 billion in frozen pandemic unemployment payments
Summary
At a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing, the DOL inspector general and outside experts said roughly $1 billion in pandemic unemployment funds remain on prepaid cards at banks and urged statutory safe harbors, better data sharing, and a statute-of-limitations extension to enable recovery.
Chairman Darren LaHood opened a Work and Welfare Subcommittee hearing saying investigators have identified nearly $1 billion in pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) funds still sitting on prepaid debit cards and in bank accounts, and urged bipartisan action to recover the money for taxpayers.
The hearing featured testimony from Anthony D'Esposito, inspector general at the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL OIG); Linda Miller, president and cofounder of the Grama Integrity Alliance; Dan Williams, founder of Origin Payments; and Michelle Evermore, senior fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance.
D'Esposito told the panel the OIG's work with financial institutions and data analytics found "more than $1,000,000,000 in taxpayer funded unemployment insurance benefits remain unclaimed or unused in 21 states," and that roughly $720,000,000 is still loaded on unused prepaid debit cards. He warned that $192,000,000 has already been turned over to state unclaimed property offices and said "continued inaction will…
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