ENROLLED
2020 First Extraordinary Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 46
BY REPRESENTATIVE JAMES
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the Louisiana Workforce Commission to study and identify solutions
for promoting access to unemployment insurance benefits, such as improving wait
times for filing claims.
WHEREAS, pursuant to the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency
Assistance and Disaster Act, La. R.S. 29:721 et seq., the governor declared a public health
emergency in Proclamation Number 25 JBE 2020; and
WHEREAS, the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 and the effects of its extreme risk
of person-to-person transmission throughout the United States and Louisiana significantly
threatens the safety, health, and security of the residents of the state; and
WHEREAS, COVID-19 has had an economic impact resulting in approximately four
hundred thousand jobless workers in the state of Louisiana receiving federal or state
unemployment compensation benefits compared with about thirteen thousand jobless
workers around this same quarter in 2019; and
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Workforce Commission is responsible for the processing
of hundreds of thousands of continued claims for unemployment compensation on a weekly
basis; and
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Workforce Commission is receiving more than
approximately seven hundred and ten thousand claims, which places an unprecedented
burden on call center staff, adjudicators, and computer servers; and
WHEREAS, individuals have reported an estimated average for wait times of over
an hour when filing claims or reaching the HiRE Help Desk by phone; and
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WHEREAS, approximately twenty-five percent of Louisiana households do not have
access to broadband internet in their homes and therefore cannot easily file unemployment
claims or weekly certifications online; and
WHEREAS, since these Louisiana households do not have access to broadband
internet, claimants must call in to file unemployment claims or weekly certifications and
should not be further burdened by having to suffer long wait times in order to file such
claims and weekly certifications.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby urge and request the Louisiana Workforce Commission
to study and identify solutions for promoting access to the unemployment insurance benefits,
such as improving wait times for filing.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
secretary of the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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