More than three months after Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed emergency reforms of the Virginia Employment Commission into law, House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, made appointments this week to a legislative commission that is supposed to lead oversight of the state agency’s management of unemployment benefits.
The Commission on Unemployment Compensation is tasked with a central role in overseeing the VEC under bipartisan legislation to carry out recommendations by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. JLARC issued a withering report last fall that strongly faulted the agency’s response to a record deluge of unemployment claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.
JLARC Director Hal Greer called the creation of a legislative oversight subcommittee “a critical part” of recommended changes at the VEC, which Youngkin had made a target for criticism of his Democratic predecessor, Gov. Ralph Northam, during Youngkin’s successful gubernatorial campaign last fall.
“Given the substantial number of improvements that VEC needs to make and the challenges and complexities associated with making them, it is important that there be ongoing legislative oversight in the near term to help ensure that the necessary changes are effectively implemented and Virginia has a well-functioning unemployment insurance program,” Greer said Wednesday.
But the legislative commission hasn’t met to form a special oversight subcommittee, create an ombudsman’s office or convene an expert advisory group – all requirements of the reforms that the General Assembly approved this year.
The legislation took effect immediately under an emergency clause that Youngkin had requested and the General Assembly approved on April 27, the same day the governor signed the bill into law 14 weeks ago.
The Youngkin administration said the emergency clause was necessary to allow the VEC to receive reports electronically from employers to speed review of employment claims. Under the law, the commission is required to meet at least quarterly, beginning on July 1.
“The governor is pleased with the progress made so far to reform the VEC and reduce claim backlogs,” spokesperson Macaulay Porter said. “Our team continues to work with the General Assembly on keeping them apprised of significant activity, in particular the waiver of overpayments provided in statute, and will work with the new subcommittee as well as move forward on this important transformation effort.”
The panel has been waiting for Gilbert, a key legislative ally of Youngkin, to make appointments to reflect the new Republican majority in the House of Delegates.
“Until there are appointments made from the House side, a meeting can’t be called,” said Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, chair of the Senate Rules Committee, which kept the three current representatives of the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The Speaker made his appointments on Wednesday, replacing three members of the commission, one Republican and two Democrats, including a University of Virginia labor economist considered an authority on the unemployment system.
“It’s frustrating; this is what people don’t like about politics,” said Del. Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville, a critic of the VEC during the previous Democratic administration who lost her seat on the commission. “Neither party wants a watchdog in their own backyard.”
In addition to Hudson, Gilbert removed Del. Candi King, D-Prince William, and Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, replacing them with Del. Rob Bloxom, R-Accomack; Del. Chris Runion, R-Rockingham; and Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria.
The Speaker’s office cited Bloxom and Runion’s experience as the owners of small businesses. It gave no reason for replacing Hudson and King, nor did it comment on the delay in naming members.
Gilbert kept Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, the panel’s current chairman, and Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford, who was one of the sponsors of legislation that passed both chambers by unanimous votes.
The decision to replace Hudson dismayed Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, the current vice chairman of the commission and one of three Democratic senators on the panel.
“That’s too bad,” Ebbin said Thursday. “She’s the one with the most knowledge on this stuff.”
Bagby, who also is chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, faulted the Youngkin administration. “It’s evident that they’re not committed to executing their campaign promises,” he said.
The commission also had been slow to respond to the unemployment crisis during the Northam administration, meeting twice in the 15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The VEC received more unemployment claims during that period than it had in the previous 10 years.
The eight-member panel is charged under state code with monitoring the unemployment compensation program and its effectiveness, and protecting the Virginia Unemployment Trust Fund, financed by employer payroll taxes to pay benefits.
Hudson was blunt in an interview last summer about the lack of urgency in the response of the assembly and the Northam administration to the crisis.
“The commission could be doing a lot more,” she said then.
As an assistant professor of public policy, education, and economics at UVA, Hudson said Thursday, “This stuff is as close to my professional wheelhouse as it gets.”
Despite losing her seat on the commission, the two-term delegate promised to remain focused on the problems besetting the state’s unemployment compensation system.
“I’m not going anywhere on this one,” Hudson said.
Diane Yane thought her struggles with the Virginia Employment Commission were over.
Virginia’s labor force expanded by 6,250 employees last month, dropping the state unemployment rate to 2.8%, the lowest it has been since the month before the COVID-19 pandemic began more than 28 months ago.
The Virginia Employment Commission is resuming collection of its nearly $860 million in overpayments of unemployment insurance benefits to hundreds of thousands of people who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, with help from Attorney General Jason Miyares and outside collection agencies.
