Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) released the following statement after another scathing report highlighted failures within Newsom’s Employment Development Department (EDD):
“If you woke up today wondering whether one-party rule hurts California’s families, look no further than today’s report on the state’s failed employment department.
“This report highlights what legislators have heard far too often these last two years – Californians were left hanging, unable to pay their rent or feed their families because of bureaucratic dysfunction at EDD.
“Government incompetence caused the problem, and the governor’s refusal to fix it just made it worse. Now our job creators are stuck footing the bill while families are left with mountains of debt because of this government-created crisis. California claims to be the technology capital of the world. It’s time state leaders demanded better IT from its state agencies.”
The EDD has a timeline of failures that date as far back as 2013 and led to the disaster Californians witnessed in 2020. Senate Republicans believe the EDD’s failures speak for themselves, and the governor’s mismanaged unemployment agency cannot continue to operate under the status quo.
Below is a list of bills Senate Republicans introduced in 2021 to #FixEDD, but they were buried by Sacramento Democrats in the Appropriations Suspense File, which is a tactic for killing bills without recording a “NO” vote on them. Besides the introduction of Republicans’ bills, Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa) requested that the Joint Legislative Budget Committee for a crucial oversight hearing of the EDD in 2021.
- SB 39 (Grove, 2021) would require the EDD to cross-check prison inmate records with unemployment claims to prevent benefits from going to prisoners.
- SB 58 (Wilk, 2021) would require the EDD to immediately end the practice of including full social security numbers on its most frequently mailed documents.
- SB 232 (Nielsen, 2021) would implement State Auditor recommendations from the previous three audits of EDD.