COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES LABOR AND INDUSTRY COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARING STATE CAPITOL HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA RYAN OFFICE BUILDING ROOM 205 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2021 10:00 A.M. PRESENTATION ON: UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION BEFORE: HONORABLE JIM COX, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE GERALD MULLERY, MINORITY CHAIRMAN (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE ERIC DAVANZO HONORABLE TORREN ECKER (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE BARBARA GLEIM HONORABLE JAMES GREGORY (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE RICH IRVIN HONORABLE DAWN KEEFER HONORABLE KATE KLUNK (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE RYAN MACKENZIE (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE DAVID MALONEY HONORABLE LORI MIZGORSKI (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE ERIC NELSON HONORABLE DAVID ROWE (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE MORGAN CEPHAS (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE DAVID DELLOSO HONORABLE ED GAINEY (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE SARA INNAMORATO (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE LEANNE KRUEGER (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE JEANNE MCNEILL HONORABLE JENNIFER O'MARA (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE NICK PISCIOTTANO (VIRTUAL) HONORABLE PAM SNYDER (VIRTUAL) 2 COMMITTEE STAFF PRESENT: JOHN SCARPATO MAJORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JONAS RICCI MAJORITY RESEARCH ANALYST MCCLAIN FULTZ MAJORITY RESEARCH ANALYST JENNIFER DODGE MAJORITY LEGISLATIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT II HALEY SALERA DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR EVAN FRANZESE-PETERSON DEMOCRATIC RESEARCH ANALYST * * * * * Pennsylvania House Of Representatives Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 3 INDEX TESTIFIERS * * * NAME PAGE JENNIFER BERRIER ACTING SECRETARY, PA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY...................6 WILLIAM TRUSKY DEPUTY SECRETARY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION, PA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY...................8 SHARON DIETRICH LITIGATION DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICES........58 QAMARA EDWARDS PRESIDENT, PA RESTAURANT AND LODGING ASSOCIATION, PHILADELPHIA CHAPTER.................................62 SUBMITTED WRITTEN TESTIMONY * * * (See submitted written testimony and handouts online.) 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 * * * 3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN COX: And I call this meeting 4 to order. Would you please rise and join me in saying the 5 Pledge of Allegiance. 6 (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited) 7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN COX: First, I would like to 8 welcome everyone to this hearing of the House Labor and 9 Industry Committee. I want to remind everyone that the 10 meeting is being recorded, so please, all members and 11 guests, please silence cell phones and any electronic 12 devices you might have. 13 We call this hearing as part of the Committee's 14 continuing oversight on the situation that we're all 15 experiencing with the UC system, both during and following 16 the pandemic. I plan to hold these hearings right around 17 once a month in order to just keep a handle on things and 18 see the progress hopefully that we'll see the Department is 19 making on corrections and addressing concerns that we have 20 been seeing over these last several months. 21 On the heels of the Department's budget hearing 22 last week, I'd also like to get an update from the 23 Department. We've invited two stakeholder groups to give 24 us their take on the administration of the unemployment 25 programs during the pandemic. 5 1 I'm just going to jump right in. So I would like 2 to welcome, for the first segment of the hearing, we're 3 going to have the Department of Labor and Industry provide 4 an update of the status of the UC system. And joining us 5 via Teams, I believe it is this time, free advertisement 6 for Microsoft there, we have the Acting Secretary of Labor 7 and Industry, Jennifer Berrier; the Deputy Secretary for 8 Unemployment Compensation Programs, William Trusky; and the 9 Executive Deputy Secretary, Robert O'Brien. 10 First of all, I'd like to thank you for being 11 here. And as has become the new custom in this Committee 12 and possibly others, I'd like for you to stand and raise 13 your right hand to be sworn in. 14 (Parties sworn) 15 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN COX: Thank you. 16 So I've asked the Department to begin with a ten- 17 minute opening statement, and then we're going to allow -- 18 we've got a period of time of about an hour for questions 19 from Committee Members, and we'll move on to the next set 20 of testifiers. 21 My understanding is that the Department's 22 testimony itself is very short, so I'm going to dispense 23 with the use of my new timer. I know that's disappointing 24 to some of you. I can use it if you'd really like, but for 25 now, we'll dispense with it. We may need to utilize it in 6 1 the upcoming testimony. But my understanding is the 2 testimony itself is rather brief. And so we'll dispense 3 with the timer for that moment -- for that particular 4 testimony. 5 But with that said, if we have questions from 6 members, I'd ask -- virtually, I'd ask you to text -- where 7 did she go? For the Republican Members, text John 8 Scarpato. I'm not sure who -- we're going to have to take 9 one step -- even the Executive Director for the minority 10 party is not here physically, so they can use -- we're 11 recommending that they use the "raise your hand" option in 12 the Microsoft Teams app. Absent that, you can communicate 13 with your Executive Director who will then communicate with 14 John Scarpato who is here in the hearing, and he'll be able 15 to notify me. 16 So we'll work on the logistics of it as we go 17 through. But without any further ado, Madam Secretary, 18 please go ahead and begin. Thank you. 19 MS. BERRIER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 20 Good morning, Chairman Cox, Chairman Mullery, and 21 Members of the House Labor and Industry Committee. Thank 22 you for the opportunity to provide updates to you and 23 answer your questions on the Unemployment Compensation 24 System this morning. 25 My testimony will be brief because we have 7 1 covered a lot of ground in the past few months on how the 2 Department has addressed the State's unemployment claim 3 challenges and what we have done to meet them head-on. 4 It's been nearly a year since the beginning of 5 this pandemic, and I think it's important to provide some 6 updated statistics. To date, we have received nearly 5.3 7 million initial claims for traditional unemployment 8 compensation and the PUA program since March 15th of 2020. 9 For regular UC, we have paid out or deemed ineligible 98 10 percent of those claimants with about 44,000 individuals 11 who are pending initial payment or resolution of their 12 claims. 13 For PUA, we have received over 2.5 million 14 initial claims, of which we have paid out 1.22 million 15 claims. And we have reason to believe that many of the 16 claims that are pending resolution could potentially be 17 fraudulent. But we are still sorting through those claims. 18 As you know, we've been hit hard with fraudulent 19 claims from fraudsters from foreign countries, from other 20 states. We have partnered with ID.me to address those 21 fraudulent issues. But we are still, you know, sorting 22 through those claims. 23 Our customer service numbers continue to grow. 24 Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have answered 25 about 1.16 million calls, addressing 30,406 calls last 8 1 week, which reflects a 581 percent increase from the 2 beginning of the pandemic when we were only able to address 3 5,231 calls per week. 4 We have responded to over 2.3 million emails, 5 addressing 58,882 emails last week. That reflects a 1,782 6 increase from the beginning of the pandemic when we were 7 only able to address 3,304 emails per week. 8 We have handled over 241,000 online chats, 9 addressing 3,324 chats last week. That represents a 56 10 percent increase from the beginning of the pandemic when we 11 were only able to address 2,123 chats per week. 12 We realize that enhancing customer service levels 13 is the number one priority for you and your constituents, 14 and we've listened to you the past few months. And we've 15 actually set into motion a plan to significantly bolster 16 our customer service levels with outside support. And at 17 this time, I would actually like to turn things over to 18 Deputy Secretary for Unemployment Compensation, Bill 19 Trusky, so he can introduce this initiative. 20 Bill? 21 (No audible response) 22 MS. BERRIER: Bill, if you're muted, please 23 unmute. 24 MR. TRUSKY: Sorry about that. Hello, Labor 25 Relations Committee, and thank you, Madam Secretary. 9 1 You know, we are pleased to announce that we are 2 working with the company called InspiriTec through 3 UniqueSource to bring on 500 additional customer service 4 reps within the next two months. These folks would answer 5 the phones and do intake for us. 6 We've experienced some success with using a 7 program in our legislative office that allows legislative 8 staff to enter claimant info, and then our staff behind the 9 scenes work those claims. This would work similarly. Our 10 folks, the folks on the phone, the customer service reps, 11 would take calls. They'd enter it into a program, and it 12 would allow our folks behind the scenes to work on those 13 claims and get to them faster. 14 Other states have taken the approach of shutting 15 down their call centers and allowing their staff to work 16 behind the scenes to address the work. We have not done 17 that.