Improvements to California’s Employment Development Department, which oversees unemployment benefits, may take longer than expected. A bill to expedite changes to agency processes was put on hold Thursday by a Democrat-controlled panel in the state Assembly.
The measure, SB 232, introduced by Republican state Senator Jim Nielsen of Tehama County, had previously been unanimously approved by the Senate. The Assembly Appropriations Committee that shelved SB 232 did not immediately offer an explanation for the hold-up.
But Democratic Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego later said that other similar bills were working their way through the state’s legislative chambers. “They were duplicative,” she said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee indeed approved similar legislation introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Rudy Salas of Bakersfield on Thursday. The bill, AB 56, called for the creation of working groups to enforce EDD’s anti-fraud mechanisms, as well as identify new strategies for improving the benefits payout system.
Nielsen said the move by the Appropriations Committee was politically motivated, dovetailing with the upcoming recall election targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Critics of the governor’s tenure have made problems with EDD a focal point of the recall campaign.
“Gov. Newsom and the Democrat-controlled legislature don’t have the courage to take on powerful bureaucracies like the EDD—clearly a failed agency,” Nielsen said in a statement. “It’s unconscionable. This shows a callous disregard for the suffering of hundreds of thousands of Californians who are unemployed because of the governor’s lockdown orders.
The EDD was flooded with more than 23 million claims for unemployment benefits since the onset of widespread business shutdowns connected with the COVID-19 pandemic. Unemployed Californians have complained of chronic delays in payments and glitches on the EDD’s website.
Sacramento has additionally reported that roughly $11 billion was paid out to fraudulent claimants.
A new date has not yet been set for a hearing of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to consider AB 56. The current legislative session expires on Sept. 10, just four days before the recall election to determine whether Gov. Newsom remains in office.