Madison–State Representative John Nygren (R-Marinette), Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Finance released the following statement:

“Today, along with 35 of my colleagues, I sent a letter to Department of Workforce
Development (DWD) Secretary Caleb Frotstman urging his team to explore all options necessary to speed up the processing of unemployment insurance claims,” said Rep. Nygren.

“We believe that one option DWD should explore is developing pre-approval procedures for
certain Unemployment Insurance claims that have a high likelihood of approval pending any reviews the Department may need to conduct. Similar practices are done in Medicaid to allow vulnerable individuals to receive healthcare as expeditiously as possible.”

Over the last few weeks, elected officials have been contacted by thousands of constituents who have had trouble with the DWD and receiving unemployment insurance. Given the
unprecedented amount of individuals applying for unemployment assistance, DWD has been overwhelmed with requests.

Due to action at the federal level, DWD is eligible for $18.9 million in federal administrative
funds. This federal funding helps with administrative costs like responding to and fulfilling
requests. Additionally, the bill Governor Evers signed into law last month allows the Governor to transfer state employees between agencies.

“I would like to thank Secretary Frostman for his leadership and the work of his team in these unprecedented times,” said Rep. Nygren. “With that said, every day we are contacted by individuals who have been waiting weeks, some more than a month, to have their claims reviewed. Unfortunately, bills and other necessary expenses have not been put on pause. DWD should be doing all that they can and thinking outside the box to expedite these claims.”

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