The Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee held a focused review of Delaware's Division of Unemployment Insurance claimant services, where department officials reported reducing a backlog from 7,500 to 1,999 claims but faced pointed questioning about Delaware ranking last in the nation for speed of first payments — meeting at 50% within the federal 21-day standard versus the 83% national average — and about a $19–$59 million gap between remaining ARPA funds and estimated modernization costs. The committee lost quorum before any formal action could be taken.
Madam Chair stated 'as far as I can tell, we are like 50 out of 50 on how our speed in getting these payments done across the country, we are the bottom of the barrel.' Secretary Moultrie responded: 'I don't consider anything, any work that is done at the Department of Labor to be bottom of the barrel, whether perfect, imperfect, somewhere in between. We are dealing with employees that have limited resources but are doing the best with what they have.' Madam Chair then clarified she was referring specifically to Delaware's speed in getting people their first check, to which Secretary Moultrie replied: 'The we is me and the employees at Labor.'
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“I had a constituent that for multiple months and it was literally a bank account situation. Someone got the money and your department was working double time to be able to not only get that money back, but to also make sure that the constituent got their money and that was rectified. And so thank you very much for that as well, because that was a huge burden. I think it got to be about $5,000 by the time it was all said and done. So I can't”
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Sign in to subscribeWelcome, Secretary Moultrie, to Joint Oversight. We are just going to start right off with roll call. We're not going to do introductions. We're just going to roll right into roll call. We have a busy day. I do want to make an announcement that the Senate is having a special earlier session today at 12:30. There's a lot going on today with the state of state. There's lots going on. So some senators are going to have to leave. So we're going to try and push through as quickly as possible so that we can give. Give this the time that it deserves and give you the time that you deserve. So we'll take due roll call. Madam Chair. Present. Madam Vice Chair is absent. Representative Ortega. Present. Present. Representative Ros. Levin. Present. Present. Representative Collins. Present. Present. Representative Jones. Giltner. Present. Present. Senator Huxtable. Here. Here. Senator Poore. Here. Here. Senator Petty J. Present. Senator Richardson. Present. Present. Madam Chair. We have nine present, one absent. Excellent. Having quorum, we will begin the meeting. We can take a vote on the minutes, right? Yep. Do a vote on the minutes. Since we have quorum. Excellent. We are. Oh,…
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