Sponsors (4)
The bill strengthens unemployment program integrity and reduces improper payments through tougher identity checks, data‑matching, and federal standards—protecting taxpayers and enabling modernization—while increasing costs, privacy risks, and access barriers that could delay or deny benefits for vulnerable claimants.
Taxpayers and the Unemployment Trust Fund: stronger identity checks and automated data‑matching will reduce improper and fraudulent unemployment payments, improving program solvency and saving federal and state funds.
State unemployment agencies and claimants: clearer federal standards, timelines, monitoring, and enforcement will produce more consistent, faster processing and compliance across states.
Employers and state agencies: mandated use of data exchanges (e.g., NDNH, SSA records, State Information Data Exchange System) will enable quicker identification of employed or deceased claimants and faster, standardized responses to verification requests.
Low‑income, unhoused, or otherwise document‑challenged claimants: requiring government ID, supporting documents, and prohibiting sole self‑attestation will create access barriers that can delay or deny benefits to vulnerable people.
State governments and taxpayers: significant administrative, technology, and cybersecurity costs to implement new identity verification and data‑matching systems could force budget adjustments, reduce funds for services, or require new state spending.
Unemployed claimants: expanded collection and sharing of sensitive identity data increases privacy and cybersecurity risks (data breaches, misuse) if systems are not properly secured.
Based on analysis of 14 sections of legislative text.
Requires identity verification and data‑matching for unemployment claims, ties tax‑code exceptions to state fraud‑prevention certifications, and lets states retain up to 5% of recoveries for admin uses.
Introduced March 5, 2026 by James Lankford · Last progress March 5, 2026
Requires state unemployment offices to verify claimant identity using a government ID plus supporting documents and to use federal and state data‑matching systems to detect fraud. Conditions certain tax‑code exceptions and state access to recovery funds on state certifications and allows states to keep up to 5% of recovered overpayments for administrative uses; gives the Labor Department new rulemaking and enforcement authority, including withholding funds for noncompliance.