SPONSOR: Eggleston
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Special Committee on Government Oversight by a vote of 7 to 1. Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Rules- Administrative Oversight by a vote of 11 to 1.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 1083.
This bill requires the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to waive the recovery on non-fraudulent overpayments of unemployment benefits if the funds distributed originate from the CARES Act or any other Coronavirus-related Federal legislation or program.
This bill contains an emergency clause.
This bill is similar to HB 1085, HB 1050, HB 1035, HB 1036, HB 873 and HB 1097 (2021).
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that based on the public testimony, this bill is necessary to protect the citizens who did not fraudulently receive these benefits. The federal portion of the overpayments make up majority of the amount Missouri citizens are being demanded to repay by the state when the federal government is not even making this demand. Citizens were encouraged by the government to apply for these funds and therefore should not be penalized for accepting these funds.
Testifying for the bill were Representative Eggleston; Missouri Budget Project; Charles W Brazeale; Elad Gross; Sue Greenberg, St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants For The Arts; and Susan Gibson.
OPPONENTS: Those who oppose the bill say that the state needs to recover these funds. These citizens were not entitled to receive these overpayments and therefore should pay them back.
Testifying against the bill was Arnie Dienoff.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: