Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are calling on Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to stop an Ohio judge from forcing the state to pay nearly $1 billion in pandemic-era unemployment benefits.
They requested Ms. Chavez-DeRemer to give formal guidance to tell state agencies that the Labor Department cannot pay out pandemic-era funds.
They argued that Biden administration’s “wrongful interpretation of Congress’s intent in the CARES Act should not compel the Labor Department to spend nearly $1 billion on pandemic-era unemployment benefits more than three and a half years after” the provision expired, “including possible retroactive payments to fraudsters due to lack of documentation of eligibility.”
“There is no legal basis for this guidance [from the Biden administration] or for incurring a nearly $900 million additional cost to federal taxpayers,” the letter says.
In February, a Franklin County judge ordered the state to pay out the federal pandemic unemployment benefits to more than 300,000 Ohioans represented in a class-action lawsuit.
The money was allocated to the state by the Department of Labor, as part of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. But Gov. Mike DeWine stopped the temporary pandemic payments in June 2021, three months before the scheduled program’s end.
His argument was that the additional money from the government to his constituents — about $300 per week — was discouraging Ohioans from going back to work.
The Franklin County Court of Common Pleas ruled that Mr. DeWine and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services must reinstate the state’s FPUC program and “take all action necessary to obtain Ohio’s share of FPUC program benefits from the Department of Labor.”
The state is appealing the ruling.
The House lawmakers said many Republican-led states ended the additional unemployment benefits early because the payments were “disincentivizing return to work efforts and exacerbating labor shortages.”
Their letter pointed out that participation in the program was “entirely voluntary,” and Ohio wasn’t the only state to stop the benefits program early. They noted that similar lawsuits were filed in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, but were dismissed.
The lawmakers said that if Ohio loses its appeal of the judge’s decision, then the Labor Department “would be compelled” to pay out the money.
“This raises serious concerns about potential unauthorized expenditure of federal funds,” they wrote.
The Washington Times has reached out to the Labor Department for comment.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.