Virginia Law

A. The Commission shall have the following powers and duties:

1. Evaluate the impact of existing statutes and proposed legislation on unemployment compensation and the Unemployment Trust Fund;

2. Assess the Commonwealth's unemployment compensation programs and examine ways to enhance effectiveness;

3. Monitor the current status and long-term projections for the Unemployment Trust Fund; and

4. Report annually its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor.

B. Within the Commission there shall be established a subcommittee on unemployment insurance (UI) that shall be responsible for monitoring the Virginia Employment Commission's management of the Commonwealth's unemployment insurance system. The subcommittee shall be responsible for monitoring the Virginia Employment Commission's following operations:

1. Key performance metrics related to unemployment insurance backlogs;

2. Efforts to identify, prevent, and recover incorrect unemployment insurance benefit payments, including fraudulent payments;

3. Modernization of the unemployment insurance information technology system and subsequent efforts to improve functionality;

4. Expenditures of state funds appropriated for unemployment insurance administration; and

5. Implementation of recommendations from the 2021 Operations and Performance of the Virginia Employment Commission report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

C. The subcommittee established in subsection B shall include (i) at least one employee stakeholder representative, (ii) at least one employer representative, (iii) at least one member of the Commission on Unemployment Compensation, and (iv) at least one member from each of the following committees: the House Committee on Appropriations, the House Committee on Labor and Commerce, the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor, and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations.

D. The subcommittee established in subsection B shall meet at least once each quarter from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2025, and shall report at least annually, beginning on December 1, 2022, to the House Committee on Appropriations, the House Committee on Labor and Commerce, the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor, and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations.

E. The Commission shall periodically convene an advisory committee composed of an employer representative, an employee representative, a labor economist, a finance expert, a labor law expert, and any other stakeholders or subject matter experts deemed appropriate by the Commission for the following purposes: (i) to review UI benefits, replacement ratios, and recipiency rates; (ii) to identify factors that affect UI benefits and recipiency, such as design of UI benefit calculations or UI eligibility criteria; (iii) to assess the advantages and disadvantages of potential changes to benefits; and (iv) to recommend to the Commission options to change benefit levels when needed. This advisory committee shall be established by December 1, 2022, and shall be convened at least every five years thereafter.

2003, c. 1038; 2022, cc. 716, 754.