Unemployment Insurance Technology and Accessibility Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4283 To provide funding for States to improve their unemployment insurance technology systems, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 22, 2020 Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. BROWN, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. CASEY, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, and Ms. ROSEN) intro- duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Finance A BILL To provide funding for States to improve their unemployment insurance technology systems, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Unemployment Insur- 4 ance Technology and Accessibility Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. SPECIAL TRANSFER FOR INFORMATION TECH- 6 NOLOGY FUNDING. 7 Section 903 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 8 1103) is amended by adding at the end the following: 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:39 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4283.IS S4283 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4283 IS ‘‘(j) SPECIAL TRANSFER IN FISCAL YEAR 2020 FOR 1 IMPROVED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.— 2 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any other 3 amounts, the Secretary of Labor shall provide for 4 the making of grants to the accounts of the States 5 in the Unemployment Trust Fund, by transfer from 6 amounts in the Federal unemployment account, in 7 accordance with succeeding provisions of this sub- 8 section. 9 ‘‘(2) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.—The amount of 10 payment under paragraph (1) with respect to any 11 State shall, as determined by the Secretary of 12 Labor, be equal to the amount obtained by multi- 13 plying $500,000,000 by the same ratio as would 14 apply under subsection (a)(2)(B) for purposes of de- 15 termining such State’s share of any excess amount 16 (as described in subsection (a)(1)) that would have 17 been subject to transfer to State accounts, as of Oc- 18 tober 1, 2019, under the provisions of subsection 19 (a). 20 ‘‘(3) USE OF FUNDS.— 21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Any amount trans- 22 ferred to the account of a State by reason of 23 this section shall be used by the State agency 24 of such State to improve the information tech- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:39 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4283.IS S4283 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4283 IS nology used by the State agency to administer 1 the unemployment compensation laws of the 2 State. 3 ‘‘(B) CONDITION FOR RECEIVING A 4 GRANT.— 5 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—As a condition of 6 receiving a grant under this subsection, a 7 State shall certify to the Secretary of 8 Labor that, within 2 years of receiving 9 such grant— 10 ‘‘(I) the information technology 11 used by the State agency to admin- 12 ister the unemployment compensation 13 laws of the State will meet the re- 14 quirements described in clause (ii); 15 and 16 ‘‘(II) applications for unemploy- 17 ment compensation, and assistance 18 with the application process, will be 19 accessible in at least two of the fol- 20 lowing: in-person, by phone, or online. 21 ‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENTS.—The require- 22 ments for the information technology de- 23 scribed in this clause are the following: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:39 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4283.IS S4283 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4283 IS ‘‘(I) REQUIREMENTS FOR ON- 1 LINE CLAIM-FILING SYSTEM.—Any 2 online claim-filing system used by the 3 State shall— 4 ‘‘(aa) ensure that the proc- 5 ess of filing initial and continuing 6 claims for unemployment com- 7 pensation can be readily under- 8 stood and accomplished by the 9 vast majority of claimants, in- 10 cluding individuals with limited 11 English proficiency, individuals 12 with disabilities, older individ- 13 uals, and individuals with literacy 14 challenges; 15 ‘‘(bb) be available in any 16 language spoken by more than 1 17 percent of the State’s population, 18 and such translations must be 19 completed by human translators 20 rather than translation software; 21 ‘‘(cc) be accessible and opti- 22 mized for both desktop com- 23 puters and mobile devices. Any 24 features of the system (such as 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:39 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4283.IS S4283 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4283 IS the ability to upload documenta- 1 tion) that are available in the 2 desktop version of the online 3 claim-filing system must also be 4 available in the mobile version; 5 ‘‘(dd) allow for electronic 6 submission of documentation re- 7 quired to support a claim; 8 ‘‘(ee) be available 24 hours a 9 day, 7 days a week; and 10 ‘‘(ff) have an automated 11 password reset function that can 12 be completed online. 13 ‘‘(II) ADDITIONAL REQUIRE- 14 MENTS FOR INFORMATION TECH- 15 NOLOGY.—Any other requirements de- 16 termined appropriate by the Secretary 17 of Labor. 18 ‘‘(iii) REPAYMENT IF REQUIREMENTS 19 NOT MET.—If, at the end of the 2-year pe- 20 riod described in clause (i) with respect to 21 a State, the Secretary of Labor finds that 22 the State is not in compliance with the 23 conditions described in subclauses (I) and 24 (II) of clause (i), the State shall be re- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:39 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4283.IS S4283 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 4283 IS quired to return the full amount of the 1 grant to the Secretary of Treasury. Such 2 repayment shall be deposited into the gen- 3 eral fund of the Treasury. 4 ‘‘(4) FUNDING.— 5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—There are appro- 6 priated from the general fund of the Treasury, 7 without fiscal year limitation, to the Federal 8 unemployment account $500,000,000 for mak- 9 ing grants to States under this subsection. The 10 amount transferred under the preceding sen- 11 tence shall not be taken into account for pur- 12 poses of any determination under section 902, 13 910, or 1203 of the amount in the Federal un- 14 employment account as of any given time. 15 ‘‘(B) CERTIFICATION.—The Secretary of 16 Labor shall certify to the Secretary of the 17 Treasury for payment to each State the sum 18 payable to each State under this subsection.’’. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:39 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4283.IS S4283 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS