Lets states keep part of recovered unemployment fraud payments and extends time limits

§1What it does

Why this matters: A plain-English description of the bill as it was voted on, written by us from the official summary and text.

✎ Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

This bill would let states keep 25% of the fraudulent pandemic-era unemployment benefit payments they recover, to spend on updating unemployment systems, hiring fraud investigators and prosecutors, and other anti-fraud work.^2,3 States could also keep 5% of recovered overpayments of regular and extended unemployment benefits if they certify that they meet certain requirements for cross-checking claims against other data.² It would give states 10 years instead of 3 to recover pandemic benefit overpayments, extend the deadline for federal criminal charges or civil cases over unemployment fraud from 5 to 10 years, and extend states' flexibility to hire temporary staff for recovery work.² It would also repeal unemployment program integrity funding provided by the 2020 CARES Act pandemic relief law, as amended in 2021, with the balance not yet committed, subject to appropriations, to be credited to states' accounts in the federal Unemployment Trust Fund.²

§2Status

§3How Congress voted

Why this matters: The official count.