(The Center Square) – Gov. Tony Evers is blaming the Trump Administration for a potential $29 million funding cut that Evers says will block Wisconsin from completing the process of modernizing its unemployment insurance system.
Evers wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on Tuesday, stating that without the funds “the state will not be able to complete its UI system modernization project, which is designed to use innovative tools to help efficiently and effectively prevent benefit fraud and abuse.”
Evers said the current system’s issues were multiplied during the COVID-19 pandemic when unemployment claims exploded and the system’s flaws were exposed. The Department of Workforce Development handled 7.2 million claims between 2016 and 2019 and, in just nine months in 2020, DWD processed nearly 8.8 million claims.
“Wisconsinites were forced to weather yet another economic crisis under the same outdated system that had caused problems and delays for years,” Evers said in a statement. “The fact of the matter is that previous administrations and more than a decade’s worth of legislators knew Wisconsin’s unemployment system was outdated and could not handle an economic crisis like the one precipitated by the pandemic, but they never took the time to fix it.”
Evers said that the American Rescue Plan Act funding that was canceled included $11.25 million to create a state-of-the-art web-based and mobile employer portal, including secure communications infrastructure to reduce improper payments and fraud, along with $6.3 million to prevent and detect fraud, ensure program integrity and improve cybersecurity and overpayment collections.
The funding also included $6.8 million to modernize written communication with all UI customers along with $4.5 million to implement identity authentication and identity proofing tools along with updating the application process and increase automation for case scheduling.
“I am requesting your immediate attention and action to not only prevent years of sustained progress from being reversed but to help ensure Wisconsin retains our ability to successfully and effectively prevent benefit fraud, waste, and abuse—an interest I understood President Trump and his administration to purportedly share,” Evers wrote.
