California’s unemployment system, plagued by multibillion-dollar fraud schemes involving COVID-related benefits, is being investigated by the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
The committee plans its first hearing of the new Congress Wednesday on the federal unemployment program and the unemployment systems in California, New York and Pennsylvania. Federal law enforcement and watchdog officials are scheduled to testify.
The committee expects many more such hearings after that. Examining COVID-related spending is a top priority for Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.
“Democrats in the administration and Congress have spent far too much time pushing money out the door and far too little time conducting meaningful oversight of how that money is being spent,” Comer said.
Comer has requested a series of documents and communications about the jobless benefit program from California’s Employment Development Department, which manages the state system. No Californians are scheduled to appear Wednesday.
In recent years, EDD has strengthened its fraud detection program. As of November, EDD reported 1,713 investigations into fraud have been opened in the last three years. There have been 296 convictions and more than $1.1 billion seized or recovered so far as investigations into pandemic fraud continue.
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