The Senate Reform, Restructuring and
Reinventing Committee reported a package of bills Wednesday with the goal of
changing regulations with regards to Unemployment Insurance. House Bills 4949,
4950,
4951,
4953,
and 4954 focus on the recovery and repayment of
unemployment benefits that have been distributed improperly.
The bills were then passed by the full Senate
on Thursday. The majority of the package received strong bipartisan support,
with the exception of HB
4952.
The bill that’s been receiving the most
attention is HB 4952 which would allow
for the denial of benefits to an individual if they were to refuse to take a
drug test or test positive for a controlled substance during a time in which
they didn’t have a legal prescription.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) and Senator
Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) opposed the bill because of unanswered questions,
such as what the protections are that an employee has if their benefits were
stripped because of an internal error.
An amendment to HB 4949 was introduced by
Senator Warren to correct an internal error within the appellate courts and
involved a very long and drawn out debate. 30 percent of the 1.6 million
determinations were appealed between 2008 and 2012 and that number was cut down
another 30 percent after the first round of appeals.
Senator Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba) along with
Senator Dave Robertson (R-Grand Blanc) questioned whether or not there would be
fewer mistakes made if the state reduced the amount of requirements needed to be
eligible for unemployment, to which the department answered no.