Florida Senate - 2021                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 1948
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì4864803Î486480                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  03/16/2021           .                                
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       The Committee on Commerce and Tourism (Bean) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete lines 564 - 729
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 10. Section 443.1113, Florida Statutes, is amended
    6  to read:
    7         443.1113 Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits
    8  Information System.—
    9         (1) The Department of Economic Opportunity shall maintain a
   10  system for the efficient distribution of benefits and the
   11  effective operation and management of the reemployment
   12  assistance program. The To the extent that funds are
   13  appropriated for each phase of the Reemployment Assistance
   14  Claims and Benefits Information system may be cited by the
   15  Legislature, the Department of Economic Opportunity shall
   16  replace and enhance the functionality provided in the following
   17  systems with an integrated Internet-based system that is known
   18  as the “Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information
   19  System” and must:
   20         (a) Be accessible through the Internet Claims and benefit
   21  mainframe system.
   22         (b) Be accessible on mobile devices and personal computers
   23  Florida unemployment Internet direct.
   24         (c) Process reemployment assistance claims Florida
   25  continued claim Internet directory.
   26         (d) Process benefit payments Call center interactive voice
   27  response system.
   28         (e) Monitor for and manage the collection of overpayments
   29  Benefit overpayment screening system.
   30         (f) Perform adjudication functions Internet and Intranet
   31  appeals system.
   32         (g) Process appeals and manage appeal hearings.
   33         (h) Manage and process employer charging.
   34         (2) Wherever cost-effective and operationally feasible, the
   35  Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits System shall
   36  accomplish the following main business objectives:
   37         (a) Wherever cost-effective and operationally feasible,
   38  Eliminate or automate existing paper processes and enhance any
   39  existing automated workflows in order to expedite customer
   40  transactions and eliminate redundancy.
   41         (b) Enable and enhance online, self-service capabilities
   42  access to claimant and employer information and federal and
   43  state reporting.
   44         (c) Integrate benefit payment control with the adjudication
   45  program and collection system in order to improve the detection
   46  of fraud.
   47         (d) Comply with all requirements established in federal and
   48  state law for reemployment assistance.
   49         (e) Integrate with the Department of Revenue’s statewide
   50  unified tax system that collects reemployment assistance taxes.
   51         (3) The scope of the Reemployment Assistance Claims and
   52  Benefits Information System does not include any of the
   53  following functionalities:
   54         (a) Collection of reemployment assistance taxes.
   55         (b) General ledger, financial management, or budgeting
   56  capabilities.
   57         (c) Human resource planning or management capabilities.
   58         (4)(a)The Department of Economic Opportunity shall perform
   59  an annual review of the system and identify enhancements or
   60  modernization efforts that improve the delivery of services to
   61  claimants and employers and reporting to state and federal
   62  entities.
   63         (b)The Department shall seek input on recommended
   64  enhancements from, at a minimum, the following entities:
   65         1.The Florida Digital Service within the Department of
   66  Management Services.
   67         2.The General Tax Administration Program Office within the
   68  Department of Revenue.
   69         3. The Division of Accounting and Auditing within the
   70  Department of Financial Services.
   71         (5) By October 1, 2023, and each year thereafter, the
   72  Department of Economic Opportunity shall submit a Reemployment
   73  Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System report to the
   74  Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the
   75  House of Representatives. The report must, at a minimum,
   76  include:
   77         (a) A summary of maintenance, enhancement, and
   78  modernization efforts over the last fiscal year.
   79         (b) A 3-year outlook of recommended enhancements or
   80  modernization efforts that includes projected costs and
   81  timeframes for completion The project to implement the
   82  Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System
   83  is comprised of the following phases and corresponding
   84  implementation timeframes:
   85         (a) No later than the end of fiscal year 2009-2010
   86  completion of the business re-engineering analysis and
   87  documentation of both the detailed system requirements and the
   88  overall system architecture.
   89         (b) The Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits
   90  Internet portal that replaces the Florida Unemployment Internet
   91  Direct and the Florida Continued Claims Internet Directory
   92  systems, the Call Center Interactive Voice Response System, the
   93  Benefit Overpayment Screening System, the Internet and Intranet
   94  Appeals System, and the Claims and Benefits Mainframe System
   95  shall be deployed to full operational status no later than the
   96  end of fiscal year 2013-2014.
   97         (5) The Department of Economic Opportunity shall implement
   98  the following project governance structure until such time as
   99  the project is completed, suspended, or terminated:
  100         (a) The project sponsor for the Reemployment Assistance
  101  Claims and Benefits Information System project is the
  102  department.
  103         (b) The project shall be governed by an executive steering
  104  committee composed of the following voting members or their
  105  designees:
  106         1. The executive director of the department.
  107         2. The executive director of the Department of Revenue.
  108         3.The director of the Division of Workforce Services
  109  within the department.
  110         4. The program director of the General Tax Administration
  111  Program Office within the Department of Revenue.
  112         5. The chief information officer of the department.
  113         (c) The executive steering committee has the overall
  114  responsibility for ensuring that the project meets its primary
  115  objectives and is specifically responsible for:
  116         1. Providing management direction and support to the
  117  project management team.
  118         2. Assessing the project’s alignment with the strategic
  119  goals of the department for administering the reemployment
  120  assistance program.
  121         3. Reviewing and approving or disapproving any changes to
  122  the project’s scope, schedule, and costs.
  123         4. Reviewing, approving or disapproving, and determining
  124  whether to proceed with any major project deliverables.
  125         5. Recommending suspension or termination of the project to
  126  the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of
  127  the House of Representatives if it determines that the primary
  128  objectives cannot be achieved.
  129         (d) The project management team shall work under the
  130  direction of the executive steering committee and shall be
  131  minimally comprised of senior managers and stakeholders from the
  132  department and the Department of Revenue. The project management
  133  team is responsible for:
  134         1. Providing daily planning, management, and oversight of
  135  the project.
  136         2. Submitting an operational work plan and providing
  137  quarterly updates to that plan to the executive steering
  138  committee. The plan must specify project milestones,
  139  deliverables, and expenditures.
  140         3. Submitting written monthly project status reports to the
  141  executive steering committee which include:
  142         a. Planned versus actual project costs;
  143         b. An assessment of the status of major milestones and
  144  deliverables;
  145         c. Identification of any issues requiring resolution, the
  146  proposed resolution for these issues, and information regarding
  147  the status of the resolution;
  148         d. Identification of risks that must be managed; and
  149         e. Identification of and recommendations regarding
  150  necessary changes in the project’s scope, schedule, or costs.
  151  All recommendations must be reviewed by project stakeholders
  152  before submission to the executive steering committee in order
  153  to ensure that the recommendations meet required acceptance
  154  criteria.
  155         Section 11. For the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the Department
  156  of Economic Opportunity shall take actions to modernize the
  157  Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System
  158  as provided in the General Appropriations Act.
  159  
  160  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  161  And the title is amended as follows:
  162         Delete lines 39 - 57
  163  and insert:
  164         circumstances; amending s. 443.1113, F.S.; requiring
  165         the department to maintain an effective and efficient
  166         system relating to the reemployment assistance
  167         program; revising the functions and objectives of the
  168         Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits
  169         Information System; requiring the department to
  170         perform an annual review of the system; requiring the
  171         department to seek input from certain state entities
  172         when performing such review; requiring the department
  173         to submit an annual report to the Governor and the
  174         Legislature beginning on a specified date; providing
  175         requirements for such report; deleting obsolete
  176         language; requiring for the 2021-2022 fiscal year that
  177         the department take actions to modernize the system as
  178         directed in the General Appropriations Act; amending
  179         s. 443.151, F.S.; revising the