During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) questioned witnesses about unemployment insurance fraud, and small business struggles with filling roles.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses.
00:03 This is a really important issue.
00:05 I'm a small employer up in upstate New York, and, you know,
00:09 there has been serious systemic problems
00:12 with unemployment insurance in this program,
00:15 and particularly in the state of New York.
00:17 There have been over 11 billion fraudulent unemployment payments
00:21 since 2020, yet despite this figure,
00:25 New York has only recovered a small fraction of that.
00:27 New York is one of only two states, along with California,
00:30 that remains selinquent on its loans borrowed
00:33 from the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund in the COVID-19 --
00:36 and that was from the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:38 The failure of Albany -- and those are --
00:40 it's run by the Democrats right now.
00:42 It's one-party rule all across the board.
00:44 To repay the debts will force employers to bear the burden
00:48 of these increased federal unemployment taxes,
00:50 and they -- until this debt remains,
00:53 and it has been a tremendous burden.
00:54 It's forced businesses to close in upstate New York.
00:57 It's really heartbreaking, and I just think it's worthy of note
01:00 that at last year in our meeting on February of --
01:03 I believe it was 2023, we had the Inspector General here
01:06 to discuss this unemployment at our last Ways
01:09 and Means full committee hearing,
01:10 and I asked the Inspector General about New York,
01:13 and he specifically said, "We tasked the Governor of New York
01:17 at the time -- it was Governor Cuomo --
01:18 in 2011 to change the systems in place, the computer systems,
01:23 the technology, or you're going
01:24 to have a real serious problem with fraud."
01:26 And we ended up with that, and guess who's paying the price?
01:29 Our beleaguered employers in upstate New York.
01:31 And so because of this fiscal mismanagement
01:34 and these real-world consequences,
01:36 they are hiking this federal unemployment tax.
01:40 It really particularly hits the smaller businesses,
01:42 a lot of restaurants, a lot of businesses forced to close,
01:44 and also those who are unable to find people to replace them.
01:49 That's why I joined my colleague.
01:51 I'm happy to join with Michelle Steele of California.
01:54 We introduced legislation to protect employers,
01:56 in our respective states, New York and California.
01:59 The small businesses in New York
02:01 and also California should not be punished
02:03 because of their state government's incompetence.
02:05 And it really is a huge concern, because we do have programs
02:09 to help people temporarily move into unemployment
02:12 in their attempt to get a new job.
02:15 So I appreciate all the ideas and the tasks that you have here.
02:18 And I first want to just say thank you to Colonel Strickland
02:21 for your innovation, and reading your testimony
02:24 and hearing your testimony today.
02:26 And what you've done on trying to get people back
02:30 into the workforce, particularly veterans.
02:31 And I appreciate that.
02:33 My son just became a major yesterday in the Marine Corps.
02:35 So it was kind of fun to pin his little oak leaf cluster
02:39 on him yesterday.
02:40 And so, but I know that so many people that,
02:43 we have so many incredible people that serve
02:44 in our military who can convert those skills into, you know,
02:47 into the private sector when they go
02:49 into their new careers.
02:50 And so I thought maybe what you might explain to us
02:53 in enhancing what you talked about,
02:55 how you actually got people back to work,
02:57 how this detrimental effect of our work shortage,
03:02 how did you get businesses to deal with initiatives
03:06 to get people back into the workforce in light of some
03:08 of the issues we have today,
03:09 where people almost have more incentives to stay home
03:12 than they do to go to work?
03:13 How do you inspire people to get off, go to work,
03:16 take care of their families, pay taxes that we need for some
03:20 of our services, how did you do that?
03:22 And I'd love to hear about it,
03:23 especially with your unique background as a military member.
03:26 >> Thank you for the opportunity to respond to that.
03:28 And it's something that we are very passionate about.
03:30 And when we started this five years ago in our group,
03:33 we were not happy with the progress being made.
03:36 And so we met and said, we're going to make a difference.
03:38 And this all started on a cocktail napkin.
03:41 Among competitors in industry, among our training aspects
03:45 of the Alabama Community College system, and among our government.
03:48 And we sat down and said,
03:49 how do we get people inspired to a new tomorrow?
03:52 We need to find something they're passionate about.
03:54 And we need to reduce the barriers to entry.
03:57 So when we started these courses, it started
03:59 with a skid steer and a pile of rocks, a pile of aggregates.
04:02 And we had people come in to learn this single piece
04:06 of equipment.
04:07 And and everybody agreed that we're going to work together
04:10 to make a difference.
04:11 And then down the road, when we're finished with this,
04:13 we're going to compete over hiring them to get them back
04:15 into our workforce,
04:17 because if we don't have a better workforce,
04:19 there's nothing to compete with down the road.
04:21 And these individuals, if I could tell one quick story.
04:25 So as we did the first pilot group, somebody went through
04:28 and he thought he was going to earn a new job.
04:30 And a three three classes down the road, I happened to be there
04:34 and he came up and hugged my neck.
04:35 And he said, I want to thank you and the committee
04:37 for what you're doing, because I thought I was getting a new job.
04:40 But this didn't change my pay.
04:42 It changed my family and my kids futures,
04:45 because you changed our level of income so that now
04:49 I can offer more to my kids and offer more for their future.
04:51 And that is how we inspire a new tomorrow to them.
04:54 We all want good.
04:55 We all love this nation.
04:57 So your company invests in getting new people
04:59 during that transition period where they're training
05:01 and getting them off unemployment and getting into your business.
05:03 Is that is that? Yes, ma'am.
05:05 And originally we didn't know it was funded by a grant.
05:07 We didn't know if we were going to get it.
05:09 And the partners in industry went to our training aspect.
05:12 And we said, if we don't get the grant,
05:15 we will write a check to cover the first year of training.
05:17 Now, mind you, none of us wanted to, but we were willing to.
05:20 And luckily, the grant came through.
05:22 And when I mentioned in my testimony, we trained over 3000 Alabamians.
05:26 None of those 3000 Alabamians have paid a cent for their training.
05:30 It has all been through grants that we have enabled them to a new tomorrow.
05:34 Well, thank you so much.
05:35 My time has expired, but thank you to everyone.
05:37 I appreciate your insight.
05:38 Thank you. Recognize Miss Moore of Wisconsin.