State Rep. Donni Steele, R-Orion Township, made the following statement Wednesday after Michigan’s nonpartisan Office of the Auditor General uncovered failures by the Unemployment Insurance Agency. The report found the UIA neglected to investigate improper payments made during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Criminals have used the UIA as their personal checkbook. Every dollar sent to the deceased or incarcerated was money that didn’t get sent to struggling families or reinvested into a broken agency. The governor and the UIA want to forget about the mountain of illegal payments they made, but it isn’t that simple. Money is not some infinite resource that will magically reappear, especially in this case. UIA is funded through tax dollars from employers. The governor knows this, yet she and her bureaucrats shrugged their shoulders and let criminals walk off with dollars contributed by our small businesses.

“House Republicans introduced a plan to overhaul the UIA by making it more open, accountable, and accessible for the people who need it. Our focus is on educating and preparing the folks receiving UIA benefits. We see the agency as a short-term fix while individuals identify and obtain long-term career opportunities. Democrats ignored us just like they ignored the fraudulent payments. They are instead pursuing legislation that would expand benefits without new oversight measures, creating even more opportunities for fraud.”

The audit into the Investigations Division at the Whitmer administration’s UIA found that between January 2020 and October 2022, the agency failed to attempt to identify a large share of imposter claims or to recover many payments and penalties. To date, audits have already uncovered billions of dollars in fraudulent payments. The most recent report revealed another $245.1 million in potentially improper payments to ineligible individuals, even after the agency found that an individual was dead or in prison. The UIA did not identify or act to evaluate whether the payments were appropriate.

The House Republican plan to reform the UIA, House Bills 4369-4374, would increase transparency, prevent fraud, and improve customer service for unemployed workers seeking benefits and employers who pay taxes into the unemployment system. The bills were referred to the House Ethics and Oversight Committee. Under Democrat control, that committee has not met since June.

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