KANSAS – According to the statement, the Kansas House voted to pass the bill, HB 2196, with 87 members voting in favor and 36 opposed. Now the bill moves to the Senate.
The Senate’s version of the bill was moved to the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs on Thursday.
The bill is set to make some major changes to the state’s unemployment system. This includes kickstarting a project to modernize the I.T. system for the state’s labor department and create a council to oversee it.
It also provides protections for employers, who are victims of fraud. If the bill passes the senate, employers would not have to pay the state for claims reported as fraudulent. For those that are unemployed, it would create a shared work program, which will include job-matching services to help get them back in the workforce.
The bill would also stipulate that an amount upward of $450 million be transferred from federal coronavirus relief funds to the Employment Security Fund, as the state faces a dwindling unemployment trust fund after an outpour of fraudulent payments.