AB 56 — Benefits: outgoing mail: claim processing: reporting.

Summary

(1) Existing law prohibits a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail, as defined, to an individual that contains personal information about that individual, including, but not limited to, the individual's social security number, unless that personal information is contained within sealed correspondence and cannot be viewed from the outside of that sealed correspondence. Existing law also prohibits, commencing on or before January 1, 2023, a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual that contains the individual's social security number, except as provided. Existing law requires state agencies that are unable to comply with this prohibition to submit an annual corrective action plan to the Legislature until it is in compliance. Existing law makes the corrective action plan and related correspondence confidential and prohibits their public disclosure. This bill would require an annual corrective action plan to contain specified information and to be submitted to the Legislature every December 15. If the Employment Development Department fails to comply by January 1, 2023, the bill would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the department to provide access to and pay for identity theft monitoring for any individual who receives outgoing United States mail from the department that contains full social security numbers in violation of the bill's provisions. (2) Existing law establishes the department within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and sets forth its powers and duties, including administration of the unemployment and disability insurance programs for California. Existing law requires the department to pay unemployment compensation benefits to unemployed individuals meeting specified requirements, to periodically review policies and practices used to determine eligibility for and the amount of benefits in the unemployment insurance program, and to report to the Legislature, as specified. Under existing law, unemployment compensation benefits are paid from the Unemployment Fund, and the expenses for administering these provisions are paid from the Unemployment Administration Fund, which is continuously appropriated for these purposes. This bill would require the department, for purposes of unemployment compensation, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to comply with various reporting and review processes. The bill would set forth a timeline for the department to follow in implementing these tasks. In this regard, the bill would require the department, among other things, to report specified information regarding overpayments at least once every 6 months on its internet website, to immediately perform a risk assessment of its deferred workloads, and to develop a workload plan that prioritizes its deferred workloads based on that risk assessment. The bill would require the department to immediately begin modeling workload projections that account for possible scenarios that would cause a spike in unemployment insurance claims, as provided. This bill would require the department to revise its public dashboards with regard to the number of backlogged claims, as specified. The bill would require the department to determine the reasons that claimants cannot successfully complete their identity verification, as specified, and to identify the elements of the Benefit System Modernization that can assist the department in making timely payments. The bill would require the department to implement a formal policy that establishes a process for tracking and periodically analyzing the reasons why unemployment insurance claimants call for assistance and to regularly analyze this data, as specified, to improve its call center. This bill would require the department, by March 1, 2022, to designate a unit as responsible for coordinating all fraud prevention and detection, as specified. Existing law requires the Director of Employment Development to report to various committees of the Legislature by June 30 of each year on the department's fraud deterrence and detection activities. This bill would require that report to include an assessment of the effectiveness of the department's system of cross matching claims against information about incarcerated individuals, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to generalize, exclude, or redact details on fraud methods and tools to protect the fraud deterrence practices of the department. The bill would also remove an obsolete reference to a predecessor committee and would instead refer to the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement. This bill would also require the department to request any personal identification information required from the claimant in accordance with the most recent federal National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-63 standards, as specified. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Bill Text

• Chaptered 10/05/21 - Chaptered Current pdf October 05, 2021
• Enrolled 09/13/21 - Enrolled pdf September 13, 2021
• Amended 09/03/21 - Amended Senate pdf September 03, 2021
• Amended 04/12/21 - Amended Assembly pdf April 12, 2021
• Amended 03/26/21 - Amended Assembly pdf March 26, 2021
• Introduced 12/07/20 - Introduced pdf December 07, 2020
• AB56 View text html

Action History

1. October 05, 2021

   Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 510, Statutes of 2021.

2. October 05, 2021

   Approved by the Governor.

3. September 17, 2021

   Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.

4. September 09, 2021

   Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 3064.).

5. September 09, 2021

   Assembly Rule 63 suspended. (Page 3063.)

6. September 09, 2021

   In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.

7. September 09, 2021

   Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 2566.).

8. September 07, 2021

   Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

9. September 03, 2021

   Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading.

10. August 26, 2021

    Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

11. August 26, 2021

    From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 26).

12. July 15, 2021

    In committee: Referred to suspense file.

13. June 30, 2021

    From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 11. Noes 0. Page 1715.) (June 29). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

14. June 22, 2021

    From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 21). Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

15. June 09, 2021

    Referred to Coms. on L., P.E. & R. and JUD.

16. May 28, 2021

    In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.

17. May 27, 2021

    Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1620.)

18. May 24, 2021

    Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

19. May 20, 2021

    From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (May 20).

20. May 20, 2021

    Coauthors revised.

21. May 12, 2021

    In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.

22. April 29, 2021

    From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (April 29). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

23. April 13, 2021

    Re-referred to Com. on INS.

24. April 12, 2021

    Read second time and amended.

25. April 08, 2021

    From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on INS. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (April 8).

26. March 29, 2021

    Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P.

27. March 26, 2021

    From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on P. & C.P. Read second time and amended.

28. January 11, 2021

    Referred to Coms. on P. & C.P. and INS.

29. December 08, 2020

    From printer. May be heard in committee January 7.

30. December 07, 2020

    Read first time. To print.

Sponsors

• Salas · Primary
• Santiago · Cosponsor
• Kelly Seyarto · Cosponsor
• Villapudua · Cosponsor
• Phillip Chen · Cosponsor
• Steven S. Choi · Cosponsor
• Tom Lackey · Cosponsor
• Mathis · Cosponsor
• John Laird · Cosponsor
• Rebecca Bauer-Kahan · Cosponsor
• Chiu · Cosponsor
• Mike A. Gipson · Cosponsor
• Maienschein · Cosponsor
• Cottie Petrie-Norris · Cosponsor
• Robert Rivas · Cosponsor
• Rodriguez · Cosponsor
• Min · Cosponsor
• Shannon Grove · Cosponsor
• Suzette Martinez Valladares · Cosponsor
• Voepel · Cosponsor
• Joe Patterson · Cosponsor
• Juan Carrillo · Cosponsor
• Stephanie Nguyen · Cosponsor

Votes

Subjects