Petitioning The President of the United States
Change.org Petition - The Department of Labor is Robbing the Unemployed out of ARRA Funds
(A) The Department of Labor published an implementation error in the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program (EUC08).
(B) This error was published by the Employment & Training Administration in August of 2008, in UIPL 23-08 Change 1, in the Q&A section about "Multiple EUC Claims".
(C) The "Multiple EUC Claims policy" does not comply with 20 CFR 615.5(2). What they advise all states to do violates regulations and laws.
With our election right around the corner, almost every politician and citizen is debating about the Economic situation, the Unemployment Rate, the lack of Jobs and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
This is one thing we all should be talking about...
The Emergency Unemployment Compensation program came from Public Law 110-252, the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008. As part of the many updates and amendments to this important law over the course of the recession, it also became part of the "Recovery Act" under Division B, Subtitle II section 2001 of the ARRA. One of the other key changes was the HR4213/"Part Time penalty EUC Fix" added in the Public Law 111-205 amendment on July 22,2010.
1. PL. 110-252 Text
2. HR4213 Summary
3. The Recovery Act Text
4. PL. 111-205 - Section 3(g), Part Time Penalty "fix"
The Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration published an error in their EUC08 guidelines Q&As that they issued to all state agencies starting in August of 2008. The Q&A about "Multiple EUC Claims" does not comply with 20 CFR 615.5(2) the "definition of an exhaustee".
What this does is force claimants for EUC08 to "finish off" any remaining balance leftover from any older benefit years EUC08 claim first, before being allowed to start receiving payment for EUC08 based on the most recent benefit year.
Example:
1. A Teacher becomes unemployed in 2008.
2. She qualifies for and runs through a 26 week state regular compensation unemployment claim for $81/week based on a part time temp job.
3. She then becomes an "exhaustee" and qualifies for EUC08 at the same $81/week in late 2008 (99 weeks total available on this claim back then).
4. This claimant only uses up 4-5 weeks at $81/week but she has a 95 week still available when she returns to a much higher paying job again.
5. The EUC08 claim stops, payment ends (according to 20 CFR 615.5(2)).
20 CFR 615.5(2) "definition of an exhasutee"
6. When she loses her job again in 2009, and she goes back onto a new state regular unemployment insurance claim for 26 weeks. This time she qualifies for $450/week. This claim is available for 52 weeks. In her case she started in August of 2009 and the state claim ends in August of 2010.
7. When she runs out of this 26 weeks of state aid for the second time now in early 2010, she becomes an "exhaustee" again for federal EUC08, and the "Multiple EUC Claims" error START (see link for (B) below).
8. Instead of paying her a new 99 week EUC08 claim, based on the 2009-2010 $450 week state claim she just finished, the "Multiple EUC Claim ERROR", incorrectly instructs the states to put her back on the old EUC08 claim from 2008-2009 at $81/week for the remaining 95 weeks.
9. This means that when the new benefit year she just entered that paid her $450/week ends in 52 weeks, she will still be stuck on the older $81/week EUC08 claim. She then loses eligibility to the $450/week claim (August 2010).
10. Also when she crosses the last state unemployment claims 52 week benefit year end in August of 2010, she WILL FAIL the Public Law 111-205/HR4213 eligibility test because she is being paid EUC08 from the old 2009 claim and not the 2010 one that would make her eligible for this important law as well. This law requires that the claim she has ENDS after July 22,2010. The old 2009 one does not, but the 2010 one she should have been paid on does (if 20 CFR 615.5(2) had been followed and "Multiple EUC Claims" had been ignored). So she may be forced off the $81/week federal EUC08 and be forced on to a new even lesser state claim for another 26 weeks. On and on...
It is just complicated enough that the feds think we are too dumb to figure this out. That almost worked too. Much less federal aid has been paid out for far shorter time periods due to these errors. You can compare and research the ERROR that the DOL ETA made in these links here (just like I did and used to win my appeal case with):
Here's the problem with the EUC08 program:
(A) Look up the Department of Labor Operating and Implementing Instructions for EUC08:
Attachment A - EUC08 Program pre-errors - determining exhaustees
(B) Then look up what the DOL issued just a month later and pay attention to Section D. Monetary Eligibility, Q&A (7) "Multiple EUC Claims":
Change 1 - EUC08 Program errors begin with this Q&A
(C) Then compare that to the DOL's own regulations for Federal State Extended Benefits at 20 CFR 615.5(2), and the definition of an "exhaustee" found here at (C) is the same as (A):
20 CFR 615.5 (C) Refutes what (B) says and supports (A)
The California Unemployment Insurance Appeal Case I won on 10/20/2011, pointed this same problem out. So, the appeal case is supported by (A) and (C) above, while it REFUTES (B). Case No. A0-265448 prevailed in support of 20 CFR 615.5(2) over the Q&A "Multiple EUC Claims ERRORS" that the Department of Labor published.
So there actually is a harmful and wasteful implementation error mistake in the "Stimulus". Further details can be found here (based on the appeal case mentioned):
an ARRA Implementation Error Exposed
Here is the Recovery Fraud Complaint, that the Recovery Accountability & Transparency Board has "buried", and that the Department of Labor is "ignoring" (they are the "accused party in this complaint").
RATB-2011-DOL-9DF2506-0
As for the Obama Administration that is seeking re-election...they got involved in this mess too (how deep remains to be seen):
Mr. President there is a serious problem with the EUC08 program
If they don't act fast to investigate and repair this ARRA waste, denial, harm and fraud....then they may face:
Welcome to our 21st Century Watergate
So Whats the Damage?
That teacher is just one example. In her case she would be owed the difference between the $450/week EUC08 she should have been paid, and the $81/week she was paid by mistake due to the "Multiple EUC Claim" ERROR.
If she was denied these emergency designated funds for just 26 weeks (the other half of a state benefit year), then she is owed $450-$81 = $369 x 26 weeks of denial = $9594.00 (my appeal paid me back $2786 dollars from a lesser denial over the same time period).
The feds and state wanted to overturn my case but have not been able to since last October 2011. They are ignoring these problems that may have affected many of these claims over the past four years:
Since 2008 there have been 29,748,954 EUC08 Claims (for all tiers) that have paid a combined 663,688,610 weeks of benefits. The amount spent so far = $97,433,246,688 for EUC08 benefits to present day.
How much money do you think has been wasted if just 1% of those claims have similar problems?
1% of 29,748,954 claims = 297489.54 claims. If just 297,489 claims were affected by the "Multiple EUC Claims ERROR", by denial similar to my appeal case (A0-265448):
$2786 over 26 weeks denied x 297489 claims affected by the "Multiple EUC Claim ERROR" = $828,804,354.
This is just a low estimate...its much worse than that...in the billions easy...just plug in the $9594 that the teacher was owed in the example above, and it jumps to $2,854,109,466. Now factor in 4+ years of this on all those claims...
If more than 1% have been denied or overpaid...that number is too big and too scary to think about. Maybe that's why the Obama Administration has been trying to subvert my efforts and wants to dodge this hard question before the election? If I were wrong, then why can't the feds refute my appeal victory after almost one year? They had the chance again on 2/7/12 and they decided it was best to not put this information before any judge.
Recovery Fraud Complaint RATB-2011-DOL-9DF2506-0 is based on that appeal victory and the errors it exposed. I filed that in March/April of 2012 and it remains unanswered and unchallenged. My Appeal Case A0-265448 still stands.
Help me stop this. The government is trying to rob millions of unemployed struggling workers and families out of ARRA emergency designated funds because they refuse to admit their mistakes. This money would go into the struggling economy as well, so it affects all of us, not just the unemployed.
Change.org Petition - The Department of Labor is Robbing the Unemployed out of ARRA Funds
More details can be found in this other related Diary, based on recent evidence, and attempts to get any explanation from the Chief of Legislature, from the Office of Unemployment at the Department of Labor, Suzanne Simonetta:
Recovery Implementation Lessons from the Past
(this describes how the 1990's DOL dealt with the same problem I have tried to bring up...in their own words)
An earlier version of this Diary was mobbed and attacked by "trusted users" who preferred to stifle this discussion. I tried to reach out and ask what specific facts there were that they had refuted and proven as untrue? I got no answer. So I decided to yank my Diary out of the Troll Group it was unfairly placed in.
I also did change the title, and the Petition to reflect the same change in an attempt to make peace. So here is the new Diary with updated information, and a second chance in an effort to avoid the same "trusted users" who have abused their "privileges" without any proof. The selective butchering of the comments section led me to delete the old diary because it was not getting any fair chance (hiding comments).
Let's please have a civil discussion this time...of the facts. Now that Robo Romney is set to "Self Destruct" and my others Diary(s) and comments here should show "which side I am on", can we have a reasonable talk about the poor unemployed struggling workers and families that have been robbed out of ARRA funds due to the mistakes made by many at the Department of Labor, who prefer to cover this up and just make things worse?
Let's work together and help to expose/investigate/and fix this problem that harms citizens and deprives the Economy of much needed ARRA emergency funds, while keeping this from causing any problems for President Obama and his efforts (pre and post election, since Romney can't win without cheating at this point).
8:13 PM PT: Tip Jar Hidden again between 7:30 pst and 8:10pm. The rules are clear about "trusted users" abusing this privilege. You cannot mob diaries like this with no proof of any factual errors nor violations of any rules. Please explain publicly why the Tip Jar has been hidden. I only see an effort to stifle a reasonable discussion, repeatedly.
Fri Sep 28, 2012 at 12:03 PM PT: You should not be able to re-publish a Diary, and unfairly label it "Troll", that has been "mobbed out" by "so-called TUs" that abuse their privileges by ganging up together and making a repeat efforts to stifle every discussion I bring up. A civilized community should not let this go on.
Here are some simple clarifications for the Trolls and Spammers who infect the comments here, who are the same Group that re-published this under the Troll Group again after I deleted it for the specific purpose to move it from this improper classification. These are the same "TUs" that Hide the Tip Jar, Hide Comments and MOB attack together within minutes of any Diary I post (that touch on a liberal and progressive corner-stone: Civil Rights).
Let's try to answer some of the questions buried under all the hate and rage so far:
1. I like President Obama and support most of what he tries to do. I have the right to bring up the fact that for reasons I state are still unknown, his White House was contacted on at least two occasions by the DOL about ME. In both cases the subject was my appeal case and efforts, and the addressee was specified as "Obama" by the DOL ETA documents I obtained from FOIA this summer (about the 10/18 and 10/21 memorandums to the White House form the DOL).
2. I did not come here to "throw the Obama Campaign" into disarray. It is not in disarray. The train wreck called the Romney/Ryan campaign is and we are all glad to see them sink. Good I say.
3. I spent a year working with the unemployed in their communities, on their websites and forums (January 2011+). We tried to help each other when the government refused to discuss the problems from the EUC error and HR4213 issues due to it.
4. I was the first to make it through a lengthy appeal process that directly challenged the "Multiple EUC Claims policy" by the DOL, that every state has adopted through the Program Guidelines I have mentioned (March-Oct 2011).
5. I prevailed and then began my own campaign to go through all the required government oversight steps to see about getting the other unemployed their denied funds back too and to have their "inviolate rights to EUC" restored (from UIPL 23-08 attachment A).
A. I requested the appeal be made a precedent and applied to other California Claimants like me (then obviously to the rest of the states from there..like it was done in 1993 under GAL 12-92 Change 5 when a similar mistake was made back then).
B. I HAVE followed up with the Department of Labor, who I had already spent six months dealing with UP TO THE APPEAL victory on October 20,2011. I had already spoken to Quinn Watt, Gay Gilbert and "bob" (Robert Wagner) from the DOL ETA and gotten then to produce their "statement of policy" IN WRITING on October 7,2011. This statement was REFUTED by CUIAB Case A0-265448 on 10/20/11.
C. That's why the White House was notified by Dale Zielger on 10/18 and 10/21/2011 about what happened in California. So that's why I say the White House and the President "are involved" in some way to be determined.Everyone else is filling in blanks that I nevr have about this.
D. I filed complaints with the DOL OIG, and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. Both have declined to do their duty, to refute me, nor explain why they have no answers either way after months and months. Ask Donald Cox of the RATB why he cannot give any information about RATB-2011-DOL-9DF2506-0?
E. So I gave up on all of their delays from October to this Spring of 2012, and this summer I filed FOIA and Privacy Act requests to all the agencies involved. I actually got boxes of documents in return. Much of it garbage and copies of my own emails, but there were several incriminating documents exposed in this. Like the 2/7 and 2/14/12 Email exchange between the DOL and EDD/CUIAB of California I have brought up among many others. The reference to contacts made by the DOL to the White House were part of these discoveries, much to my own shock and surprise. Only cover sheets as I have clearly stated. The actual content of the memos fell under the FOIA "attorney-client privilege exception"> There have been WAY TOO MANY OF THOSE. 40+ documents from the last RATB FOIA request had this exception. What is going on if THEY are lawyering up?
F. I have spent the entire time from last January 2011 to this summer and present day, feeding the media information bit by bit as I went on. I asked them to investigate further. I almost never got any response.Some big names have come and then gone, with no response. I even talked with Maurice Ensellem of the National Employment Law Project AT LENGTH this Spring. He seemed to be very curious about my findings. He could not refute what I said and seemed shocked when he realized I was correct. He then vanished...telling me he was going to "look into the regulations". He was meeting with Gay Gilbert the very next week. He has been seen repeatedly in the company of the DOL Admin heads for months. He has yet to respond except to say "I am sorry but we can't help you". Nothing else. NELP seems to be funded by the DOL or the DOL is one of their clients...
G. This brings us to late summer and this fall. That's when I started making Public Disclosure that match my Media disclosures. I waited a LONG time before I came here to try to get this important subject some much needed attention. because NOBODY ELSE WILL SPEAK UP BUT ME. As I have made FOIA discoveries and had further conversations with the DOL over these last months, it has become clear that:
I. Our government made a historic mistake in August of 2008.
II. I came along and challenged it in 2011 (maybe others did before...who knows if they got the same reception).
III. I refuted the mistake at the highest level for the Unemployment Appeal Courts in California after a lengthy battle.
IV. They fixed the mistake for me and me alone.
V. I tried to follow up and get it fixed for everyone else, because if I proved it wrong, and the judges admitted it was wrong, and ALL parties continue to pay me as if their original policy was wrong, then they are leaving everyone else to do what? Appeal and go through what I did?
VI. They intend to NOT fix the mistake, IF THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT.
VII. I intend to stop them and their violations of civil rights, laws, and regulations.
VIII.That is about as progressive and liberal as it gets...
Final Note.
Unit Zero was just hear around 11:30am...he made FOUR COMMENTS all in a row. I don't have to read them to tell you that HE is the SPAMMER. HE is a TROLL. And HE and the OTHER TUs that are involved should have their status "re-considered".
Its a good thing I just cooked up a new batch of "Second Gen's Doubter Donuts" to feed them with...
That's all folks...sorry for the inconvenience. Go back to ignoring the unemployed and the economic stimulus problems. Nothing to see here...except the unfortunate "timing" and the understandable liberal/progressive paranoia after the many long hard years of dealing with the Rovians, the Grovers, Limboobs and all the other flat earth twats that have driven some of you poor folk into a paranoid protective frenzy that McCarthy would be proud of.
Take some time off. President Obama will prevail. He can even withstand a democratic investigation of some serious facts about problems over at the Department of Labor.
So boys and girls please...
Fri Sep 28, 2012 at 1:11 PM PT: Aoeu, Tytalus, and Unit Zero are not happy, and are now attacking the comments again. I can just watch them add flame after flame to the thread. They aren't making any point, they offer no facts, except to stifle my own. All they want is a fight. I choose to offer Troll Recipes. Let the community decide who is what.
They act like what they accuse. This is how spammers and trolls react. If they were right and I was a "troll" then why do they keep attacking and inflaming the situation despite what your own FAQ says?
Fri Sep 28, 2012 at 1:37 PM PT: Serial accuser and spammer "absdoggy" has shown up right on time with the rest of the gang to attack some more and ask me to leave. Thank you, but no. I think the community wishes you and the others would leave. You all fuel the problems here. Not me. Yet you keep coming back. All of you...
Ohh look. Now "aoeu" has returned too...to back up the others. What are the chances that they are messaging each other and mobbing? Pretty good I think.
"Trusted users" indeed....trust them to get together and destroy this diary is more like it. Very democratic.