Unemployment Insurance Integrity Center of Excellence Operations

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The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) intends to award a cooperative agreement to the Center for Employment Security Education and Research (CESER) for continued operations of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Integrity Center of Excellence (Integrity Center). This sole source award is statutorily mandated in ETA’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 appropriation. The Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Other Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020 and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020 ((P.L. 116-94) provides “… $9,000,000 for continued support of the Unemployment Insurance Integrity Center of Excellence…” The accompanying congressional explanatory statement further notes that, “The Committee includes $9,000,000, the same as the fiscal year 2019 enacted level and $3,000,000 more than the fiscal year 2020 budget request for the continued support of the UI Integrity Center of Excellence (UIICE), including $6,000,000 for the benefit of States to the entity operating the UIICE.” The primary mission of the Integrity Center is to provide training and technical assistance to states to improve UI program integrity; develop, disseminate, and promote innovative new tools and products that are transferable and scalable for all states to prevent UI improper payments and enhance fraud prevention solutions; and enable rapid alerts to states on new improper payment practices and fraud schemes as they are identified.

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