Gov. Evers faces criticism over unemployment issues, but GOP lawmakers created restrictions that limit his ability to act

MADISON - Unemployment insurance is the latest political flashpoint in divided Wisconsin.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration is struggling to catch up on a backlog of 675,000 unemployment claims that are part of the surge driven by the coronavirus pandemic. And Wisconsin was the last state in the nation to begin issuing $600-a-week enhanced payments provided by the federal government.

The situation has prompted Republican lawmakers to blister Evers with criticism and urge him to provide faster relief to the jobless.

But those same GOP lawmakers have instituted a series of benefit restrictions over the last decade that have limited Evers’ ability to respond to the current situation. Most recently, they approved lame-duck laws just before Evers took office that prevent him from loosening many benefit eligibility rules.

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Republican lawmakers have taken lumps in recent weeks because they forced the state to cover $25 million in benefits that would have been picked up by the federal government if they had acted more quickly to pass a coronavirus relief package.

State Rep. John Nygren, a Republican from Marinette and co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee, said he has received hundreds of phone calls about the difficulties people are having getting their benefits. 

"The issue we're hearing is people can't get through," he said. "It is by far the No. 1 issue through this whole pandemic."

But Democratic state Sen. Dave Hansen of Green Bay said Nygren and other Republicans laid groundwork that has worsened the problems claimants are now facing.

“Republicans deliberately built in obstacles that made it more difficult for people to qualify for unemployment benefits and to deny as many people as possible the benefits they’ve earned," he said in a statement.

The situation comes as the state grapples with an unemployment rate that hit 14.2% in April. More than 2 million weekly claims for benefits have been filed since March 15, when the state and nation began to suddenly shut down.

Evers’ Department of Workforce Development is hiring more employees to review applications and plans to expand call center hours, but Nygren argued more should be done.

"Other states seem to be doing this very rapidly," he said.

The Senate Committee on Labor and Regulatory Reform will hold a hearing at 11 a.m. Wednesday on the backlog that will be streamed at wiseye.org. The Republican-led panel is expected to hear from Workforce Development Secretary Caleb Frostman, as well as business associations and labor groups. 

Nygren and other Republicans this month called on the administration to issue payments to some beneficiaries before reviewing whether their claims are valid. But he said he has since learned the administration doesn't have the authority to do that. 

Nygren said he is open to crafting legislation to try to address the issue but hasn't gotten answers from the administration about what it needs. 

Evers spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said the governor was committed to getting people their benefits and accused Republicans of "sitting around and pointing fingers."

"Republicans weren’t concerned enough about unemployment insurance to convene the Legislature before Wisconsin lost out on $25 million in federal funding last month, or at any point in the last eight years during which they made it harder for people in our state to access this critical assistance," she said in a statement.

A dozen laws in a decade

Over the last decade, Republicans have enacted a dozen laws tightening the state's unemployment insurance program.

In 2011, they approved a law that requires those thrown out of work to wait a week before they can claim benefits. Evers and Republican lawmakers suspended the waiting period last month in response to the coronavirus crisis, but it will go back into effect in February.

In 2012, Republicans approved a law that prevented many claimants from receiving benefits if they did not search for work. The law also prevented them from receiving benefits if they worked more than 32 hours in a week or received more than $500 in sick pay, holiday pay, vacation pay or termination pay.

In 2013, Republicans expanded the requirement to search for work and established more instances in which claimants would have their benefits automatically cut off for what was considered misconduct. (Previously, such matters had to be decided on a case by case basis.)

That year, the Republicans also increased the length of time people are deemed ineligible for benefits after they decline a job offer and prevented people from receiving unemployment benefits if they are getting disability insurance payments.

In 2015, they passed a law requiring those seeking unemployment benefits to take a drug test. The federal government did not sign off on the measure until last fall and drug testing has not yet been implemented. The Evers administration could limit the number of workers who are subjected to the requirement.

Also in 2015, Republicans increased the number of situations in which someone can be denied benefits for refusing a job offer.

And in December 2018, just before Evers took office, Republican lawmakers approved lame-duck laws that limited the governor’s power in numerous ways, including by restricting the ability of the administration to waive many criteria for receiving benefits.

Those laws were signed by outgoing Gov. Scott Walker, the Republican whom Evers defeated a month earlier.

For now, people on unemployment are receiving an extra $600 a week in benefits because of a temporary increase approved by Congress. The additional benefits, which are paid by the federal government, are slated to expire at the end of July.

Wisconsin was the last state to begin issuing those payments, according to the Hamilton Project, an initiative by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.