00:00 - We're so glad to have Secretary Walker here

00:03 - with us as well before we begin.

00:06 - Chairman Trucy, do you have any introductory comments?

00:09 - Yes. Thank you, Chairman Harris. Good morning everyone.

00:11 - Secretary Walker, I want to thank you, I think, for being the most

00:14 - enthusiastic secretary to date for a budget hearing.

00:18 - Appreciate that energy.

00:20 - A couple of highlights I want to touch on before we start.

00:23 - The governor is proposing to spend a total of $103.3 million for the general fund

00:29 - for the Department of Labor and Industry for the upcoming fiscal year,

00:32 - an increase of $6.5 million, or 6.8%, over the current fiscal year.

00:37 - Last year during this hearing, we we focused on minimum wage, broadband

00:42 - classifications under the prevailing wage and unemployment compensation.

00:46 - So I think we'll have to hit on those themes again to some extent this year.

00:50 - And then I think we also want to highlight,

00:52 - as we move forward, three new initiatives that you have, 3.5 million

00:56 - within the Industry Partnerships program for initiative to invest

00:59 - in Pennsylvania's workforce, 1 million,

01:02 - to as a transfer for to the vocational rehabilitation fund

01:06 - and 3.5 million, as a new initiative

01:09 - for the schools to work appropriation to grow career and tech education.

01:14 - And I think that's something that's important to many of us.

01:16 - So I know that's going to be an ongoing theme throughout this hearing.

01:18 - So we look forward to hearing from all of you. Thank you.

01:22 - Thank you gentlemen.

01:23 - All right.

01:24 - Before we begin, testifiers, if you could all stand so I can swear

01:27 - everybody in.

01:32 - Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give is the truth?

01:36 - The whole truth so help you God?

01:39 - Thank you so much.

01:41 - Always good to see our good friend and former member,

01:44 - representative, Jerry Morey.

01:47 - Here.

01:49 - Welcome back to to the House.

01:53 - In the middle of the table is our timekeeper.

01:57 - When it turns green,

01:59 - that means that our members have five minutes to ask a question.

02:04 - They will proceed with their questions for five minutes.

02:07 - When it turns yellow, that means that there are 30s left.

02:10 - We ask that you try to conclude with your comments, at 30s.

02:15 - And when it turns red, that means that time has expired.

02:18 - We will do our best to keep within our five minutes.

02:22 - As we would like to get to as many members and as many questions as possible.

02:29 - Secretary, would you like to

02:31 - have introductory comments or would you like to go right into questions?

02:35 - Thank you, Chairman Harris.

02:36 - Thank you, Chairman.

02:38 - I will, rely on our extensive written comments and not,

02:43 - reiterate them here or speak them here, but I want to thank everybody

02:46 - in the chamber for their continued cooperation

02:48 - and collaboration in helping us

02:49 - to do good things with the dollars that you, give us to administer.

02:53 - I'd also like

02:54 - to thank the thousands of workers in the Department of Labor and Industry

02:57 - that get the good work of the people of Pennsylvania done every day.

03:00 - So with that, I'm happy to take questions.

03:04 - All right, let's start Representative con.

03:07 - Thank you, Chairman Harris.

03:08 - Thank you, Secretary Walker.

03:09 - And thank you for your entire team for being here.

03:12 - Three questions for if we have time.

03:14 - First one is on minimum wage.

03:15 - Currently, Pennsylvanians are struggling just like folks in the rest of the country

03:19 - with increasing prices.

03:22 - Gas is going up.

03:24 - Costs.

03:25 - Costs at the grocery store are going not just cost to heat your heat.

03:29 - Our homes are going up. Things keep going up.

03:32 - Wages are still stuck at 725 for minimum wage.

03:35 - Representative Ronnie Green has a bill that will bring wages up to $15

03:39 - immediately, and then tie it to cost of living after.

03:43 - Can you talk about how a bill like this, which reflects

03:46 - the governor's budget priorities, would help to bring Pennsylvania forward

03:51 - and also help to help these workers who are struggling here in the Commonwealth.

03:55 - Thanks so much, representative.

03:56 - You know, I think it's both an issue of economy and equity.

04:00 - So from an economic standpoint,

04:02 - you know, few people who are making minimum wage are working for it

04:05 - that are working full time or making just a little over $15,000 a year.

04:09 - It puts them below the poverty line.

04:11 - From the economic standpoint, if we raised everybody to $15 an hour within once,

04:16 - it implemented, we'd end up saving up to 300 million, according to DHS.

04:21 - In supports

04:22 - that we've been given, families that aren't able

04:24 - to take care of themselves based on their pay.

04:27 - We'd also put 80 million, $80 million into the general revenue

04:31 - fund through taxes, and it would also give people an opportunity

04:35 - to just pay, as you say, pay for the things that affect their lives.

04:39 - It would put more money into local economies,

04:41 - and it would make us more competitive.

04:43 - When we look at other states,

04:44 - because every state around us has a higher minimum wage.

04:47 - Thank you.

04:48 - Currently in Pennsylvania, we have a worker shortage

04:51 - in many industries, and our folks with disabilities

04:54 - are actually many are very eager to work, but just needed job accommodations

05:00 - need a little bit of assistance to be able to to get these jobs.

05:03 - So can you talk about what your office has been doing

05:05 - to uplift folks with disabilities so they can enter the workforce?

05:09 - That's a great question.

05:10 - Thank you so much.

05:11 - This past year alone, we've put more than 6000 workers

05:14 - into jobs with 3500 companies across Pennsylvania.

05:18 - We've had 19,000 new folks reach out to us this year.

05:21 - Thousands of people are served

05:23 - through the various programs through our vocational rehabilitation.

05:26 - Everyone from young people

05:27 - with pre-employment services, we do summer internship programs.

05:31 - We help young people who are transitioning to college

05:35 - with, skills ready opportunities at Penn State every year.

05:38 - We have a my work program that's very popular

05:41 - that gives young people in high school

05:43 - the opportunity to work for the summer, their first paid work experience.

05:47 - And then we work with

05:48 - we try to make sure that we are training people to get into workforce pipeline,

05:52 - whether that's trying to get people into apprenticeship programs

05:55 - or into skills training or building up people in the workforce.

05:58 - And I also want to thank First Lady Shapiro, who's really helped us.

06:02 - This has really been a pet project of hers to work with over.

06:05 - And she's really opened up great opportunities for us with new employers,

06:09 - across the Commonwealth to build new opportunities to get people into new jobs.

06:15 - Thank you for your work to help these folks get get into the workforce.

06:18 - Final question is about captive audience.

06:22 - I have a bill that would ban these captive audience arrangements, where workers

06:26 - are forced to listen to political speech, including anti-union rhetoric.

06:30 - Can you tell tell us if a bill like this would get passed?

06:33 - What role perhaps your agency might be in enforcing

06:37 - this and making sure that workers are not forced to hear political

06:41 - rhetoric or anti-union rhetoric while in the workforce?

06:45 - Well,

06:45 - having been a union lawyer for many years, I can appreciate that that's an issue.

06:49 - Certainly any way that the labor and industry can support, a bill,

06:53 - you know, by way of enforcement, we'd be certainly happy to discuss

06:56 - with you and make sure that it's aligning to the needs of the workforce.

07:00 - Thank you. Thank you.

07:02 - And thank you, gentlemen.

07:04 - Representative Barton.

07:05 - Thank you, Chairman Harris.

07:06 - And, welcome, Secretary Walker and team Labor and Industry.

07:10 - Welcome. We're glad to have you here.

07:12 - And, Madam Secretary, it's good to see you again.

07:13 - To see you.

07:15 - According to, data from the U.S.

07:18 - Energy Information Administration,

07:21 - not a single utility scale natural gas project

07:25 - has been started in Pennsylvania since Governor Wolf pushed

07:29 - the Commonwealth into the regional green gas initiated back in 2019.

07:35 - 22 states, including Ohio and West Virginia,

07:39 - had natural gas power plants of 75

07:43 - 75MW or bigger,

07:46 - larger, pardon me.

07:47 - Under construction in various stages.

07:50 - As of spring of 25.

07:55 - Interestingly, there were

07:58 - zero sites planned for any of the 11 states

08:02 - that had been participating in Reggie.

08:07 - There's a broad agreement across the Commonwealth

08:09 - that our economy depends on energy.

08:11 - My my good friend, the gentleman from Philadelphia

08:13 - just spoke about how energy affects all of our communities

08:17 - from, direct development of our state's, abundant

08:20 - natural resources to affordable energy required

08:24 - to keep our manufacturing, robust and competitive.

08:29 - It's undeniable that

08:32 - a strong economy to spend

08:34 - depends on a strong energy sector.

08:39 - Amendments to the fiscal code officially ended.

08:41 - Pennsylvania's participated participation in Reggie

08:45 - and I consider that very good news.

08:50 - So I'll get to the question.

08:52 - What what are the prospects for enhanced

08:56 - energy investment across Pennsylvania in the coming years?

09:00 - And how will these investments impact the workforce across the Commonwealth?

09:05 - Thanks so much for the question, Representative Barton.

09:08 - As you know, one of the five sectors that,

09:11 - the governor's secretary can just ask you to.

09:13 - Yeah. Thank. Of course. Apologies.

09:16 - As you know, one of the governor, one of the five sectors

09:18 - and the governor's ten year economic development plan is, in fact, energy.

09:22 - So making sure that we are creating a robust workforce in the energy

09:26 - space is important to us.

09:27 - So as we roll out apprenticeship programs and issue

09:30 - grant awards in that space, as well as schools to work programs,

09:33 - to be able to continue to get people into that pipeline, into

09:37 - well paying, family sustaining jobs is important to the agency as well.

09:41 - So the and you referenced the governor's plan.

09:44 - The the lightning plan is that you're referring to or the ten year

09:47 - economic development plan has five key areas, one of which is energy, right?

09:52 - And I mean, Pennsylvania's the number I sound like a broken record saying this.

09:57 - We're the number two energy natural resource in the United States of America.

10:00 - And and if we look at what we can do and,

10:04 - we heard again that my good friend, the gentleman from Philadelphia talk about

10:07 - people struggling with,

10:10 - high cost of energy, high electric bills.

10:12 - We should be the cheapest in the United States of America.

10:15 - Candidly. And so,

10:18 - there's so much economic development that could come from that.

10:22 - And I greatly appreciate anything you can do to continue that.

10:26 - Absolutely. Thank you.

10:27 - Thank you.

10:27 - Senator.

10:31 - Thank you.

10:31 - Gentlemen.

10:32 - Representative Donohue.

10:38 - Representative Abney.

10:53 - Thank you, Mr.

10:53 - Chairman.

10:53 - Thank you, Madam Secretary, and your team for being here.

10:56 - Want to, talk a little bit about unemployment compensation?

11:02 - I wanted to talk a little bit about the technology

11:04 - that you all have been developing to help make it more, more efficient.

11:09 - And so could

11:09 - you talk a little bit about the service infrastructure improvement Fund

11:12 - and what it's actually doing?

11:13 - Is it successful? Is it working?

11:16 - Was still needs to be done to improve it.

11:17 - So thank you so much for that question. That is really important.

11:20 - So as you know, when we were here, this is now our fourth budget hearing.

11:23 - So for budget hearings ago

11:25 - what was top of mind for everyone was unemployment compensation.

11:28 - How the system wasn't serving Pennsylvanians.

11:30 - So the governor invested heavily in and we took advantage

11:33 - of the Service Infrastructure and Improvement Fund to do that,

11:36 - to add 380 intake interviewers to have live people in.

11:41 - Have you see connect,

11:42 - which puts our intake interviewers into career links across the state.

11:45 - We have you see chat, we have email services.

11:48 - So these have all reduced sort of the impact on all of your offices.

11:52 - And if serve people wherever they are.

11:54 - So if they want to be in person

11:55 - they can be in person or they can be online.

11:58 - This past year, the federal government reduced our funding

12:01 - and you use by $7.7 million.

12:04 - So the SIFF investment, $115.6 million this year is what we're asking for.

12:10 - We really make sure that we continue to serve the people of Pennsylvania

12:13 - in the same fashion

12:14 - we have over the last three years, when federal funding is diminishing.

12:19 - You know, just to stay on the topic of unemployment compensation,

12:22 - I know I asked about this last year, the the,

12:26 - the referee appeals process.

12:28 - I know that, when you mentioned what's going on,

12:32 - I think you all were looking there's a backlog, right?

12:35 - There was a backlog.

12:36 - And around the Philadelphia, Philadelphia area and Pittsburgh

12:39 - and you all were looking, I believe, to at that time bring on six new, referees.

12:44 - And I believe that you had mentioned that, the time frame that it took

12:48 - from start to finish for that appeals process was roughly around 60 days.

12:52 - But before you took over, it was like 210 days.

12:55 - So it seemed like we had made progress.

12:57 - Do you have a status update on the timeline that it takes,

13:00 - and did you hire those six referees and was was the update on that?

13:05 - So I thank you very much for the question.

13:07 - So this this time last year we talked about about 19,000 backlog claims.

13:11 - Right now we have about 7000, which is considered

13:13 - a working, you know, sort of a working average.

13:17 - We are now below the 45 day benchmark, which is terrific.

13:21 - And yes, we did. We hired folks.

13:22 - We were able to really, have people work overtime and focus in the areas

13:26 - where had the big backlogs to get rid of them.

13:29 - And we're also working on getting through, regulatory changes in that space.

13:33 - So right now we have no option for telephone or video

13:38 - hearings, which is something that's going to be

13:40 - and the the IRC is going to be hearing that on March 19th.

13:44 - And what will give us the ability to do is to have referees

13:47 - that are maybe less busy here

13:49 - at some of the online or telephonic hearings,

13:52 - and that would be a choice of both parties.

13:54 - But if parties choose to do that because it's too long to drive

13:57 - or it's inconvenient to get to a referees office,

13:59 - it gives us the ability again to cut down on the number of backlog claims.

14:03 - So I think we're moving really in the right direction

14:05 - and a real shout out to that team, because they really put in a lot of hours

14:09 - and a lot of time to get us to where we are.

14:10 - Yeah, definitely shout out to the team.

14:11 - I know we've we've seen in our office back in Pittsburgh like the process

14:16 - being more efficient. So we're grateful for that.

14:17 - So from 60 days to 45 days I believe the federal standard is 30.

14:23 - I think it's 45.

14:24 - Oh, it's 44 now with the benchmark. Yes.

14:26 - Okay.

14:26 - Well, anything that we can do to help

14:28 - continue to bring that down for 45 days, let us know.

14:30 - But thank you for all the work that you're doing this year.

14:32 - Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate it.

14:34 - Thank the gentleman representative all summer.

14:36 - You must thank you, Mr. Chairman.

14:39 - Secretary Walker and

14:40 - team, thank you for being here this morning.

14:44 - Madam Secretary,

14:46 - during last year's budget hearing, we had a significant discussion

14:50 - regarding the management of federal broadband funds.

14:54 - I am concerned because we all know

14:57 - that the deployment of broadband access is fundamental

15:01 - to jobs and economic development in rural areas across Pennsylvania,

15:07 - connecting our communities to global marketplace.

15:11 - Back on February 9th, 2026,

15:15 - the National Telecommunications Information Administration

15:20 - conditionally approved Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority's

15:23 - Broadband Equity access and Deployment final proposal.

15:29 - This proposal is slated to provide over 711 million

15:35 - to expand broadband access to nearly 130 locations

15:40 - unserved locations throughout the state, largely

15:44 - in rural areas like mine in Pike and Wayne counties.

15:48 - It's also my understanding

15:50 - that the it's also my understanding

15:54 - that the federal approval is only conditional

15:57 - because of the disagreement we explored last year

16:00 - regarding the classification of broadband line workers, specifically,

16:06 - the Shapiro

16:07 - administration refused to recognize that fiber optic line installation

16:12 - is inherently different from electrical line work.

16:17 - As a result, concerns were raised

16:20 - that Commonwealth related expenditures related to the project

16:24 - work were work likely

16:27 - will far exceed

16:31 - what is reasonable and necessary, contrary

16:34 - to the regulations promulgated by the Federal government.

16:38 - In other words, the Shapiro administration

16:42 - is not doing what it needs to control

16:44 - costs, enhance affordability,

16:48 - and ensure that these funds will provide

16:50 - every possible mile of fiber

16:53 - to connect the maximum number of rural locations.

16:58 - So, Madam Secretary, can you please tell us,

17:02 - will the Department of Labor and Industry

17:04 - comply with this conditional approval to ensure that our rural communities

17:09 - do not lose out on this 700 and million 711 million?

17:15 - And I have a follow up to that as well.

17:16 - Okay. Thanks so much for your question.

17:18 - And Secretary Seiger testified last week, all 130,000 locations

17:23 - that are slated to be part of this rollout will happen.

17:26 - The unserved customers will become will become zero.

17:29 - It has nothing to do with the classification per

17:31 - se or the rates for those they've been bid up.

17:35 - With respect to entities,

17:37 - requirements, if any.

17:39 - They haven't told us what those were. Candidly, we're still waiting.

17:41 - But you can be rest assured that we will work with our colleagues

17:44 - to make all efforts to make sure that those lines are released.

17:47 - Okay. Thank you.

17:48 - Yes. Last week, Secretary Seigel did or Sigler did,

17:54 - testify.

17:55 - And he stated that he believes that the, 711 million is enough to finish

18:00 - the identified 130,000 unserved locations,

18:06 - associated with that funding.

18:08 - And and I believe he did go he did state that that would take care

18:12 - of all unserved locations throughout the Commonwealth.

18:16 - However, a quick review of the DCD website reveals

18:21 - there are 254,000 unserved and under underserved

18:26 - locations in the Commonwealth.

18:29 - Therefore, there are still nearly 125,000 locations

18:35 - without a plan for broadband coverage.

18:39 - Getting a

18:39 - worker classification for wage rates

18:43 - correct would ensure

18:45 - these funds can expand broadband access

18:49 - as far as possible.

18:52 - So, Madam Secretary,

18:54 - why is your department continuing to fight against appropriate

18:58 - classification and wage rates in the Commonwealth Court?

19:03 - Lot of questions there.

19:04 - So the DC IDPs I will I will rely on my colleagues

19:07 - for with respect to classification and and wage rates.

19:11 - The particular case that's pending right now

19:14 - before the Commonwealth Court was just argued a few weeks ago.

19:17 - And we should be getting a decision from that.

19:19 - Bank panel shortly.

19:20 - So I can't really comment on that beyond

19:22 - saying that we'll we'll see what the court directs.

19:26 - Thank you very much.

19:27 - Thank you.

19:30 - Thank the gentleman.

19:31 - Representative Webster.

19:38 - Thank you,

19:38 - Mister Chairman and and, Secretary, thanks for being here.

19:41 - And and your whole team. It's,

19:44 - it's a long week.

19:45 - And these days, you know, when you're in the spotlight. Another.

19:47 - They're tough.

19:49 - And I don't want to overstep sort of the monologue part,

19:52 - but I'm pretty excited about the thing we have. And coming up.

19:54 - And I'm going to ask, Director High to give me some comments.

19:59 - In my district office, led by an intern, we are creating a resource

20:05 - fair March 28th, and currently over 400 families have signed up.

20:10 - We have 75 vendors over has a table.

20:13 - You'll be there.

20:15 - And we're expecting Boston University,

20:17 - Syracuse University all focused on post high school.

20:22 - There's 18 years old. You graduate from high school.

20:24 - How do you transition into a world? And I'm

20:27 - I'm going to read a couple of things, so I get it right. But,

20:31 - in a world where

20:32 - there's employment and opportunity for for an individual who need support,

20:37 - we have, like local folks integrate for good

20:41 - can cress variety club, but also,

20:44 - a couple of instances where a family has created their own coffee shop.

20:49 - Right?

20:50 - So that barista Jake can serve and create,

20:54 - you know, a future for himself in that regard.

20:57 - It's an exciting time.

20:58 - I know that it's not the whole story.

21:01 - I know that you want to talk about the whole story, so I'd like to.

21:04 - So I turn that over and then maybe at the conclusion of that,

21:09 - the sensitive part. Right.

21:11 - If our and I say this, I'm smiling

21:14 - and everybody kind of understands what I'm going.

21:18 - If our federal colleagues aren't funding things the way they used to,

21:23 - how does that impact us?

21:25 - Yeah. Thank you, thank you.

21:28 - Thank okay. Good stuff.

21:30 - Thank you for the question.

21:31 - Really appreciate the opportunity to be here.

21:33 - So the whole story is our publication of success stories.

21:37 - And this year we endeavored to do that for every county.

21:41 - We combined a couple of the small little counties,

21:43 - but for general purposes, we were able to find successes everywhere.

21:48 - We're very proud of our customers

21:49 - and everybody that we serve and our partners with, employers

21:53 - and agencies like you mentioned, Ken Kraske, we use them routinely.

21:58 - So we're just really excited to show the abilities of people

22:01 - with disabilities because they are just looking for opportunities.

22:04 - And over is usually the bridge that helps them,

22:08 - you know, obtain those opportunities and work in the competitive labor market.

22:11 - And you mentioned the transition from high school to work or high school to school.

22:15 - And, one of our big services that we're required to do and we love doing is,

22:20 - serving students with disabilities through our pre-employment transition services,

22:24 - we are required to reserve 15% of our federal money on students with

22:28 - disabilities for making that transition from high school to work or to school.

22:34 - So anyone starting at age 14 through graduation, we can work with

22:39 - and we really focus on self-advocacy skills, skills, post-secondary exploration

22:44 - and aid, work based learning, which is our big My Work program in the summers.

22:49 - So my work is working with a vendor and an employer,

22:53 - usually a nonprofit or a municipality, township or whatever,

22:57 - to get kids with disabilities their first work experience.

23:02 - And, we pay for all that, we pay for the wages, we pay for the supports.

23:06 - But it's getting that it's setting that expectation

23:09 - for students with disabilities to work in a competitive labor market.

23:12 - And we're super proud of that. We will probably do.

23:15 - We did about 400, 500 last year.

23:18 - We're probably going to do about 1000 students this summer.

23:20 - And we're we're super excited.

23:22 - The funding is been a roller coaster at the federal level

23:26 - going back to 2020 for the federal government.

23:31 - Flat funded us.

23:32 - We have a mandatory Cola in the Rehabilitation Act.

23:36 - That increases, you know, slightly every year.

23:39 - Do you make sure you get that mandatory colas in in our

23:43 - Pennsylvania. You now it's in the National.

23:45 - We have that.

23:46 - Yeah.

23:46 - The now the rehab act is

23:47 - what the federal Rehab Act is, what governs Over's work for the most part.

23:52 - And there's a mandatory Cola in there.

23:54 - And they took it in 2024, and that was kind of unprecedented.

23:59 - Hadn't happened in recent memory.

24:01 - And then since then it's been threatened to be taken,

24:04 - but it ends up coming back in the end through the Senate and the House.

24:09 - So it's been will they won't for us, after that 2024.

24:14 - And we know that in 2026 that was just passed at the federal level.

24:20 - Originally the president had taken the Cola out,

24:23 - but then the Senate and House put it back in at the last minute.

24:26 - We don't know what federal fiscal year 27 will bring.

24:30 - But that will it won't it has been a complication for us

24:33 - in determining what total services we can provide for the year.

24:37 - It also impacts our ability to hire, which,

24:40 - you know, prevents us from hiring more counselors to serve more people.

24:44 - And I just finish up by saying that

24:47 - that that level of consistency allows planning.

24:51 - And even for my resource fair. Right.

24:53 - If if we're not continuously funded in ways that make sense

24:58 - for all of those families, it's hard to plan and and see the future.

25:02 - Thank you for that. You. Yeah.

25:05 - Chair.

25:05 - Thanks, gentlemen. And recognizes representative courts.

25:08 - Thank you chairman. Good morning Secretary.

25:09 - Thank you for everyone for being here with us.

25:12 - Take time today.

25:13 - I want to zero in on you see fraud just to

25:16 - if you have any notes you need to turn to on that while I get to my question here,

25:21 - back in 2022, the Ifo produced a performance

25:24 - based budget report for your agency that indicated

25:27 - that in 2020 and 2021, $570

25:31 - million was fraudulently paid in regular USI payments.

25:35 - Obviously you were not Secretary of Labor and Industry at the time.

25:39 - And that,

25:41 - kind of goes back to some broader issues, where the Commonwealth paid out

25:44 - 6.6 billion and 2.3 billion in regular benefits in 2020 and 2021.

25:50 - And that obviously comes from business shutdowns and Covid and all that.

25:55 - So coming out of that now,

25:58 - just generally on fraud,

25:59 - do you have an estimate as to how much fraud

26:03 - may have occurred in the UC system in 2024 and 2025?

26:08 - And how much was recovered by your department?

26:11 - So I'll have the deputy secretary sort of get into the details.

26:14 - What I can tell you

26:14 - is that we have implemented all the multi-factor authentication.

26:18 - We have ID kiosks at every one of our

26:21 - 58 Careerlink locations, and we have another 20 or so U.P.S.

26:25 - locations in areas to make sure that people are identifying themselves.

26:28 - I think fraud is very low right now.

26:30 - Maybe a few.

26:32 - You know, false identity claims that we're able to handle very quickly.

26:35 - But I will ask the deputy secretary if she's any more granular detail.

26:40 - So I think it's important to understand in the first instance

26:43 - that when a fraudulent overpayment is written, it's not recovered.

26:47 - In that year.

26:48 - So I can tell you how many fraudulent

26:51 - overpayments were written in 2024.

26:54 - I can also tell you what the recoveries were, but it's not apples to apples.

26:59 - If I write a fraudulent overpayment today and that individual never filed

27:03 - for unemployment, absent the statutory remedies to to go

27:08 - after that fraudulent payment, we may not see that money.

27:11 - Sure.

27:11 - So let's let's start let's start there then.

27:14 - Whatever dollar amounts you have, I think what I'm getting at is,

27:17 - is the core of the, the root of the issue,

27:20 - which is how much of an issue, dollar wise, is, is you see, fraud.

27:25 - And as a general assembly, what can we do statutorily to help combat that fraud?

27:31 - And what does your department need to be able to get that dollar amount down?

27:36 - So in 2024, the total number of fraudulent

27:39 - overpayments written across, do you want regular PwC?

27:43 - Do you want all of the programs? Sure.

27:45 - So across regular you see you see extended benefits.

27:50 - Who was

27:53 - 43,586,000.

27:56 - In regular unemployment, it was 5.9 million.

28:00 - And then in 2025 across regular

28:03 - you see you see EB accrue.

28:06 - That was 33.84

28:09 - million with regular you see being 4.9 million.

28:14 - So that that sounds like a drastic change from five years ago.

28:18 - Yes, it would be.

28:19 - And I would attribute that to identity verification on the front end.

28:23 - If you want to use the modernized system, multi-factor authentication

28:27 - using ABS account verification services through the Treasury,

28:32 - all of the require cross matches that we have to have.

28:36 - And candidly, having more staff and being able thanks to the Swift

28:40 - fund to supplement our federal funding and staff up, we also have a robust

28:45 - relationship with the United States Department of Labor OIG office.

28:49 - We refer any cases involving

28:52 - waste or fraud to them,

28:54 - and they have been wonderful in partnering with us to recover money.

28:58 - So let me ask this

28:59 - if I if I can put it in a dollar and cents way, how much does your department

29:03 - spend on fraud recovery compared to how much you're able able to recover?

29:09 - Does that make sense?

29:12 - I would have to to see if we can get you an estimate on that.

29:15 - I can tell you what we pay in terms, we can get you an estimate on what

29:20 - it costs for ID me, which is our identity verification provider,

29:25 - but our cross matches are required as part of the system.

29:29 - So those federal cross matches like the Social Security Administration,

29:33 - the Integrity Data Hub, the DNA and stage,

29:38 - it would I we can try to put a price point on that.

29:41 - Are there other statutory measures that your department is is looking for

29:45 - that could help kind of continue to to tick that number down?

29:50 - If I would continue to ask for anything, it would just be the Sift funding

29:56 - so that we can continue to keep the compliment that we have

30:00 - and have staff who can investigate these claims.

30:05 - I will tell you that you see fraud during the pandemic,

30:10 - and you see fraud in the traditional sense are really two different things.

30:15 - What we saw during the pandemic were foreign actors, lots filing claims.

30:21 - Typically when you talk about you see fraud.

30:23 - Now it is an individual who files a claim and goes back to work

30:28 - and doesn't tell us or doesn't report their earnings.

30:31 - And fraud is a fraud is a term of art.

30:34 - You have to establish that frame of mind that mens rea.

30:38 - So we should see less fraudulent overpayments.

30:42 - But there's a human element to this

30:44 - that deputy Secretary, I don't mean to cut you off.

30:46 - My time is expired.

30:47 - I just want to thank you for your efforts to continue to combat

30:50 - waste, fraud and abuse in our public benefit systems.

30:53 - I want to thank the chairman for the time and,

30:55 - look forward to a continued partnership with you. Thank you.

31:00 - Deputy Secretary,

31:01 - if you'd like some additional time to to expand.

31:05 - You're welcome.

31:05 - You're welcome to.

31:06 - Well, I, I do just think it's important to understand that

31:11 - what we saw during the pandemic was very unique and nuanced.

31:16 - And what you typically see when individuals

31:20 - are have a fraudulent overpayment,

31:23 - it typically would be unreported earnings.

31:27 - Hopefully the days of that pandemic fraud, that identity theft,

31:32 - fraud are behind us.

31:36 - Thank you very much.

31:37 - Chair. Thanks, gentleman.

31:38 - And recognizes Representative Bellman.

31:41 - All right.

31:41 - Thank you, chair. And thank you all for being here.

31:44 - We know that we have about 100,000, federal workers, in Pennsylvania.

31:49 - And in 2025, the governor signed an executive

31:52 - order to hire, federal furloughed workers.

31:55 - I just want to see, how that initiative was going.

31:58 - I'm happy to say we've hired several at our agency.

32:01 - And I know that that continues to be a priority of the administration.

32:04 - Thank you for asking.

32:05 - Well, thank you.

32:06 - And is there anything that you think that we can do in order to continue that

32:10 - in order to help more federal workers, be harder with the state?

32:13 - We have a lot of openings at the state, and we just continue to encourage anybody

32:17 - who's been displaced from a federal job to apply at the appropriate agency.

32:20 - We're always looking for good talent.

32:22 - All right. Thank you. And another question.

32:25 - I have a lot of young people, in my district that want to work.

32:29 - They can't wait till they graduate high school, and become an adult.

32:33 - So I just wanted to see I know the governor is proposing, to double

32:36 - the schools to work funding to $7 million.

32:40 - Can you talk a little bit about the impact that the program has had?

32:43 - I would love to. Thanks for that question.

32:44 - We actually yesterday at Susquehanna Township School District announced the,

32:49 - they had,

32:50 - announced 17 awardees, a $4.1 million

32:54 - we were able to put into schools to work for 17 awards across the Commonwealth.

32:59 - And these are wonderful opportunities

33:01 - to get young people into career pipelines, right?

33:03 - So, so often young people just don't know what career options might be out there.

33:07 - And schools to work

33:08 - gives them an opportunity at hands on learning experience.

33:10 - They get.

33:11 - Industry in Susquehanna

33:12 - has industry recognized credentials as well as college credit.

33:15 - So it's a dual enrollment.

33:17 - So it really prepares young people to see what a career might look like.

33:20 - Maybe they're think maybe not.

33:22 - But if it is they can either roll into a job immediately

33:25 - with the credentials they've earned or they have, in this case,

33:28 - college credits, so

33:29 - that they can put into becoming a teacher if that's what they choose to do.

33:32 - So these are wonderful opportunities to really give

33:35 - young people a chance to try something.

33:38 - And to get a head start on their next steps in their lives.

33:41 - Right.

33:41 - Do you think you have a number about, like,

33:42 - how many young people have gone through the program or I apologize, yes.

33:45 - We've had we've had thousands at this point of young people.

33:48 - We've been able to give, 52 grantees, by doubling

33:52 - our money, will be able to do hopefully at least double the amount, going forward.

33:57 - And right now, we've been able to have programs in

34:00 - just about three quarters of the Commonwealth counties of the Commonwealth.

34:03 - So we'd love to expand that everywhere

34:05 - and to give as many young people opportunities as we possibly can.

34:08 - All right. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Sure.

34:10 - You thank you,

34:13 - thank you.

34:13 - Gentlemen. Representative Nelson.

34:16 - Thank you, Mr. Chair.

34:17 - Secretary, it's great to have you here and and see your staff.

34:20 - I know we do a lot of work together.

34:23 - I want to start my questions following up,

34:26 - in the area of fraud, you know, I mean, we had massive fraud during Covid,

34:30 - and I know we're trying to take steps, to recoup those funds.

34:36 - The Department of Government Efficiency, you know, does,

34:39 - from a DC perspective, they identified nationally

34:44 - that there were thousands of workers that had extreme birth dates.

34:49 - You know, I think there were 24,000 people over 115.

34:54 - There were 28,000 people under five years old,

34:57 - the 10,000 people not even born yet.

35:00 - Most of that fraud seemed to be in

35:03 - California, New York and Massachusetts.

35:06 - What is Pennsylvania done to kind of scrub our UC rolls

35:11 - or to ensure that we don't have these extreme birth date recipients?

35:16 - Yeah.

35:16 - I think you heard Deputy Secretary Mayorkas talk about the various levels

35:20 - at which we identity check and that we, you know, employ the very best of systems

35:25 - to make sure that we are catching fraud on the front end.

35:28 - And also comparing data to make sure that that doesn't happen.

35:31 - So we're really doing and as she says, we're doing with the statutes

35:35 - and the law requires, as well as what technology provides,

35:38 - we just need to continue to have the staff to keep doing that.

35:40 - Good work.

35:41 - Sure.

35:41 - And, in that area, fraud a theme across the number of secretaries that been here,

35:48 - illegal workers, you know, labor trafficking,

35:51 - sex trafficking, just the drug, everything interconnected.

35:55 - You know, when I listen and talk with the Pennsylvania's building trades,

36:01 - you know, they feel, you know, contractors are really profit profiting.

36:06 - And it's almost a 30% advantage when a contractor

36:10 - that's using illegal workers or undocumented workers and

36:13 - and it's not so much the political battle over the workers,

36:17 - but I'm interested in being able to get up the food chain.

36:21 - You know, they're saying between 50 and $100

36:24 - million of revenue lost through this tax fraud.

36:27 - You know, are are there ways that we might be able to better pursue

36:33 - these contractors, like, how do we get you those tools

36:36 - so that we can work across agencies

36:39 - and hold people more accountable?

36:42 - That's a great question.

36:43 - And the 30% you you note is really the cost of an employee, right?

36:47 - So regardless of the status of the worker, if they're not having payroll taxes run,

36:51 - that's basically a 30% savings for any whether it's a contractor

36:56 - on a construction site or any business owner

36:58 - that's not paying those taxes, that gives a real leg up to law violators.

37:02 - And it really makes for an unfair,

37:03 - fair playing field for law abiding contractors and businesses.

37:08 - We have

37:09 - seen are you see tax service just through their auditing system

37:12 - identified about 21,000 misclassified workers.

37:16 - Of that about 2300

37:17 - were turned over to our Bureau of Labor Law compliance for further sanctions.

37:22 - To the contractors, that for us,

37:25 - our enforcement aren't

37:26 - statutory enforcement

37:27 - is with respect to the Construction Workplace Misclassification Act.

37:30 - So only the construction workers were

37:32 - the were the ones that we were able to go further.

37:35 - And impose further fines on.

37:37 - So having plenty of resources in that space

37:40 - to be able to continue to do the work of getting on sites,

37:43 - looking at documents, doing headcounts, looking at payroll records,

37:47 - those are really important aspects of keeping that fraud down.

37:51 - One of those areas that somewhat shifting gears,

37:54 - but it's in an area of concern in the you EGF, the Uninsured Workers

37:59 - Guaranteed fund, where right now, you know, a couple of years ago

38:03 - we increased, I think, by about 150% the surcharge on legitimate employers

38:08 - and contractors to pay for undocumented or under the table workers.

38:15 - We still,

38:16 - to my understanding, do not require proof of wages

38:20 - or anything to be able to identify the employer.

38:24 - A person can just call up and say, I was working

38:27 - and I was making this much money, and then they start to receive those benefits.

38:32 - It would be really are is there a way that we can,

38:36 - you know, put some checks and balances in to, you know, better

38:40 - hold the contractors accountable that are paying people under the table?

38:46 - I think I'll ask Deputy Secretary Mallory to to address that.

38:50 - Representative, if you don't mind.

38:51 - Thank you, Madam Secretary.

38:53 - Thank you, Nelson, for the question.

38:55 - I was here when that legislation was considered.

38:58 - I can tell you that the workers compensation judges

39:01 - and the commissioners on the workers compensation Appeal board,

39:05 - follow the law in the statute, to the to the tee.

39:09 - So they are

39:09 - they're reviewing whatever evidence is presented to them

39:12 - with regard to wages, making a determination as to what

39:14 - the average weekly wage and compensation radar and issuing orders as appropriate.

39:17 - It's just the law doesn't require proof, right?

39:20 - Verbal.

39:21 - Somebody could just say what they make in their.

39:24 - And they advance. Right.

39:25 - And they have the ability to submit, bank deposits or any type of memorandum

39:29 - that they may have from the employer, evidencing their wages.

39:33 - But certainly our workers compensation judges and our commissioners

39:37 - on the appeal board have the authority

39:40 - to assess weight and credibility, to witness testimony.

39:44 - That's part of the process as it stands today.

39:47 - Thank you, Mr. Chair.

39:48 - Thank the gentleman. Representative young.

39:51 - Good morning everybody.

39:53 - Good morning.

39:54 - And, child labor space.

39:57 - The fines collected from violators varies

40:00 - from 2020 to current can.

40:03 - Is there an explanation why?

40:05 - I'm trying to see if there is a correlation between between

40:08 - the reporting and the investigations, or is it some other reason why

40:13 - it varies in the numbers from the collections of the fines?

40:17 - You're just why the numbers are what they are.

40:20 - Say it again.

40:21 - You're asking what the trend is in the numbers, right?

40:25 - Is there a reason why the goes up or down.

40:27 - So if you look at your your graphs.

40:30 - So in 2020 is different from

40:33 - from 2020 until current.

40:35 - So it goes up, it goes down, it goes up and goes down.

40:37 - But I'm not under.

40:38 - It doesn't share with me the reasons why

40:42 - in terms of the fines collect it.

40:45 - Yeah.

40:45 - I'm I'm not sure that there is a specific time going to ask the deputy secretary

40:49 - to address that. Okay.

40:52 - Good morning.

40:52 - Thank you for the question.

40:55 - In general, not I mean, if you want to start in 2020,

40:58 - we just seen a steady increase in the number of complaints that are filed

41:01 - and also the number of investigations that are conducted.

41:04 - So I think at the heart, that would explain why

41:08 - numbers change from year to year as far as why they're trending up.

41:12 - And then ultimately the number of violations are what they are.

41:16 - So, you know, in some instances they may be lower,

41:19 - some of them may be higher.

41:21 - But whatever violations we find that would would be effective

41:25 - and the violations that are the fines are ultimately assessed.

41:28 - All right.

41:28 - And my apologies because I meant to really emphasize the child labor space.

41:32 - So is that there is the answer for the child labor space.

41:37 - Correct? Okay.

41:37 - I so I'm just looking at some data in front of me back in 2020,

41:42 - investigation resulting in fines were 71.

41:45 - And in fiscal year 2425, there were 165.

41:49 - So that's a big you know, just five years is a big difference.

41:52 - And the violations are the investigations resulting in violations.

41:56 - Okay.

41:56 - And I think generally looking at that, I think as the labor

41:59 - market got tighter, I think there were more children that were working.

42:02 - And being utilized to fill open positions.

42:04 - I think that's probably why we saw an uptick over the last couple of years.

42:09 - Okay.

42:09 - Now, I know I have, legislation that's currently in the Senate

42:12 - that increases the fines for Child Labor Act violators.

42:15 - And so would you say that increasing the fines for those bad actors

42:20 - will cause employers to hire less children?

42:24 - I think generally when you increase the fines, it causes more compliance. Yes.

42:28 - Okay. Compliance.

42:29 - Okay.

42:30 - And also how would you say that increase in the fines of the violators?

42:34 - Well, do you think it will impact our school

42:37 - to work and apprenticeships initiatives?

42:42 - Yeah.

42:42 - The more money in the general fund, you know

42:44 - potentially that could be put back into our program.

42:46 - Certainly.

42:47 - And most of our fines go if we're not getting wages

42:50 - back to workers, we are adding money to the general fund.

42:53 - So increasing the general fund increases

42:55 - the opportunity to spend that money elsewhere.

42:58 - But you have not heard of a report of any employer

43:01 - saying because they are now being held accountable,

43:04 - they will hire less youth to be employed by their establishment.

43:08 - We often resolve cases with employers, with the understanding

43:12 - that they will not continue to do that, and with the understanding

43:14 - that we will continue to monitor that they do not.

43:17 - I appreciate that, thank you.

43:18 - Thank you.

43:21 - Representative Danzo thank you, Chairman Harris.

43:25 - And thank you, Madam Secretary, for being here.

43:27 - Always good to see you.

43:28 - Madam Secretary, the governor proposes an additional $1 million

43:32 - for the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation,

43:35 - or over to assist Pennsylvanians who were blind, deaf

43:38 - or hard of hearing to secure and maintain employment.

43:41 - Can you talk about this initiative

43:43 - and how it will help those individuals secure and maintain employment?

43:46 - That's a great question. Thanks so much.

43:48 - And we're looking to take that million dollars

43:50 - and put it into two different parts.

43:51 - So one is for support service providers.

43:54 - And those are the folks that work with individuals that are deaf and blind.

43:58 - So it's a really niche area.

43:59 - We have about 112,000 people who are 112 people

44:04 - who are being serviced by that now

44:06 - and then, our Office of Death and

44:07 - our Office of Blind and Visually Impaired, to do things like training people

44:11 - to use white canes to help them find their way around their homes

44:14 - and to identify, to be able to label things in their homes is a really

44:18 - these are two areas

44:19 - that are not funded by VR funds, our vocational rehabilitation funds.

44:23 - So it really is supports

44:24 - it's really necessary for some of our most vulnerable citizens.

44:28 - Yeah. Thank you for that answer.

44:29 - Now would you would you say that when an individual gets a job,

44:33 - are they more short term or are they are they long term jobs or

44:36 - or are they just in the middle whenever someone does find employment.

44:40 - So our intention we want to get people into competitive

44:42 - integrative employment for their work life.

44:45 - So we are looking to get people into training programs,

44:48 - give them the supports they need to be able to find a job

44:50 - and keep a job and be able to support their families.

44:53 - All right. Perfect.

44:54 - Thank you madam Secretary. Thank you, chairman and

44:57 - thank the gentleman, Representative Mullins.

45:09 - Thank you, Mr.

45:09 - Chairman.

45:10 - Forgive me for multitasking at the moment.

45:12 - I wanted to ask about the centers for Independent Living.

45:14 - We are very proud of ours.

45:16 - Back in Lackawanna County, where?

45:19 - Representative Donohue and cause asking you both on this

45:22 - committee are also proud of that, center as well.

45:26 - I know last year, the funding for those centers

45:30 - for Independent Living were, ended up being level funded.

45:34 - And the proposal in this budget, remains as much.

45:39 - I just wondered if you could talk about the needs, for that program and,

45:44 - if if we really should be taking a look,

45:47 - on, on in this branch of government, before sending a budget over to you,

45:52 - about increasing that program, just to recognize

45:57 - and support the amazing work, they do for so many individuals across the state.

46:01 - And they do do such amazing work.

46:03 - Thank you so much for the question.

46:04 - These are, you know, groups that support individuals with disabilities

46:07 - who stay in their homes.

46:09 - It's much more costly to be outside your home.

46:11 - And it's really separating people from their their community.

46:14 - So being able to stay in your homes and have the supports are so important.

46:17 - It is a flat funding request for 2.64 million.

46:20 - We divide that among the nine cells in the state

46:24 - to are federal and state funding.

46:25 - And seven are just state funded.

46:28 - They are really good with the resources they have.

46:31 - I'm sure they'd welcome additional resources, but these are,

46:33 - again, great ways to keep people living independently in their home.

46:37 - And it's just a real community asset I appreciate it.

46:41 - Well, thank you for the feedback.

46:42 - And we'll we'll do our best to,

46:45 - see what we can do as far as, supporting that line.

46:48 - Now in in years to come. Thank you. Secretary.

46:50 - Thank you.

46:55 - Thank the gentleman representative flood.

47:01 - Thank you chairman.

47:01 - Thank you, Madam Secretary, for being here today.

47:04 - And I just want to add to the previous question about the sales are really great.

47:08 - They really do.

47:10 - Offer a great opportunity for those individuals living with disabilities.

47:15 - So, you know, I think that the sales offer

47:18 - a valuable asset to our community and those involved in it.

47:21 - My question for you is,

47:24 - I understand that there's a waiting list for services provided by the Office

47:28 - of Vocational Rehabilitation for customers with disabilities in the categories

47:32 - of significantly disabled or non significant disabilities,

47:37 - with an individual plan for employment, develop prior to April 1st, 2025

47:43 - and that that will remain in place as a result of the flat federal funding.

47:47 - This is referred to as the Order of Selection.

47:52 - Can you please

47:53 - provide the committee with an update on the order of selection and when?

47:57 - We will see additional individuals removed from that list?

48:00 - Thank you so much, representative.

48:02 - That's it's such an important question.

48:04 - As you note, we have three categories.

48:07 - Our most significantly disabled. There is no waitlist.

48:10 - We continue to to service.

48:12 - Those folks are significantly disabled and disabled are in a wait list.

48:17 - 1319 on the former and 163 on the latter.

48:21 - That's a total of just over 1400 people,

48:25 - as is, Deputy Secretary Hyde said earlier, because of flat

48:28 - funding in 2024, it really pushed us sort of in this direction.

48:32 - And in the fall we had to start implementing this order selection.

48:36 - If federal funding, is not,

48:39 - stalled at a 2024 level, if we continue to get cost

48:43 - of living adjustments as we continue, if we continue to get authorized funds,

48:47 - we may be able to take ourselves off of the order selection.

48:51 - But right now, because we did, albeit seven months late,

48:55 - get a cost of living in this last budget, we've been able

48:58 - to start to slowly staff up because we were on a hiring freeze as well.

49:02 - And we're starting to take people off

49:04 - that order of selection that somewhere between 100 and 200, each month.

49:08 - So we're keeping an eye on it to make sure that we are moving people off

49:12 - as quickly as we can based on the resources we have.

49:15 - Can you provide us with the number of how many people are still on that list?

49:19 - It's yeah, the total right now on that list is 4304 people,

49:24 - 1400 1319 on significantly disabled and 163 on disabled.

49:30 - Okay. All right. Great. Thank you.

49:32 - I appreciate that information.

49:38 - Thank you.

49:38 - General.

49:38 - Lady representative Casa, we're asking.

49:50 - Okay.

49:51 - Good morning.

49:51 - Thank you for being here with us this morning.

49:54 - A couple things.

49:55 - One, I do have quite a few people in my district,

49:59 - back in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that work with Swift and Swift.

50:04 - And I will say, I do engage with some of the stakeholders.

50:08 - You know, the, the health care world that, trial bar, the, insurance.

50:13 - And I wanted you to know that there is a definite change in culture.

50:17 - There's a it's it's better, the rapport.

50:20 - So I wanted to say thank you for that.

50:23 - It's, under your leadership and your administration, I have seen a change.

50:27 - I have family members that work at Swift and lots of lots of friends that do.

50:31 - And, so I heard lots of complaints over the last 20 years.

50:34 - But I, I wanted to to let you know that that there is a change and it's,

50:38 - it's been beneficial for the, the, just the overall camaraderie and the, the,

50:44 - the the feeling of, you know, being able to go to work

50:46 - and being feeling like they're being productive.

50:48 - So that's been, that's been a good change.

50:50 - Well, I appreciate that.

50:51 - And Deputy

50:52 - Secretary Mueller has done an excellent job and workers comp across the state.

50:56 - And just making sure that's the feeling shared everywhere.

50:58 - Thank you. Thank you Secretary Mueller.

51:00 - He used to sit right in this chair behind me and I and Kyle

51:04 - Mullins myself, Kyle Donahue also from the Scranton area.

51:08 - I don't think you had a chance to to to serve with Mueller,

51:10 - but I do miss some of his, his comments that he would make during his wisdom.

51:15 - Excuse me?

51:16 - Mullins is saying his wisdom, his wisdom, the House floor.

51:18 - So, yeah, we are grateful for for that.

51:23 - But as

51:23 - we look forward to strengthen the long term financial position of Swift

51:27 - and keep premiums affordable for the employers,

51:30 - can you speak to how Swift's current statutory statutory

51:33 - cap on equity investments affects its overall investment return?

51:37 - And if that cap were to be modernized or lifted,

51:40 - what kind of additional revenue potential or financial flexibility

51:43 - might that create for the fund and the workers and businesses it serves?

51:48 - That is a great question.

51:49 - So right now we have a 7.5% cap and equity investment.

51:54 - If we were to take that up to 20%, for example,

51:57 - you know, given sort of market conditions, you know, we could add as much as like

52:00 - $17.3 million in one year.

52:03 - It would really everybody's, you know, investing more

52:07 - evenly than, Swift is.

52:09 - And it was certainly give us an opportunity

52:11 - to add to the corpus of the fund.

52:12 - Yeah, that's a big number. It's a big number.

52:15 - So, thank you for that.

52:16 - And I think it would be better to be able to do something

52:18 - in that terms for the long term financial stability.

52:20 - So thank you.

52:21 - We agree.

52:21 - And we'd be happy to help with any kind of drafting.

52:24 - Thank you. Thank you.

52:28 - Thank

52:28 - the gentlelady, Representative Krupa good morning.

52:31 - Thank you all for being here.

52:33 - I want to talk a little bit

52:35 - about the 3.5 million within the schools to work appropriation.

52:39 - First, I want to give a shout out, though, to the,

52:41 - CTE kind of CTE in my district and,

52:45 - in the neighboring district, the Greene County CTC, which has I'm also

52:48 - very familiar with, and I think they're doing really great things already.

52:52 - And in noting where the workforce shortages are and taking steps

52:57 - to implement that at the Fayette County CTC, they have expanded.

53:01 - They built a brand new medical science building

53:03 - they recently expanded for in early education,

53:07 - two areas where we know there's a there is definitely a need for for workforce.

53:11 - I know in Greene County,

53:12 - one of their focuses have been a new CDL driving program.

53:16 - But Madam Secretary,

53:19 - there already are

53:20 - CTCs and cities are already operating co-op

53:23 - programs, employer partnerships and apprentice pipelines.

53:27 - What specifically does this $3.5

53:30 - million, this additional money?

53:33 - What is it going to do that our CTCs are not already doing?

53:35 - And I'm going to I'm going to hammer or some questions that real quick.

53:37 - And then you can address them as you as you feel relevant.

53:39 - But can you provide a breakdown of where this funding is going to go?

53:43 - How much is directed to student wages, how much to employer reimbursement,

53:47 - and how much to administration or intermediaries.

53:51 - Does this funding go directly to the CTCs in the school districts,

53:54 - or is it going to be routed

53:55 - through workforce boards and nonprofit or nonprofit coordinators?

54:00 - Given Pennsylvania's workforce shortages

54:03 - in healthcare, skilled trades, manufacturing and transportation,

54:06 - how are we going to ensure that this initiative is specifically

54:10 - targeting those fields so that we see measured outcomes?

54:16 - What can we expect to see with this program?

54:18 - So thank you for all those questions.

54:21 - So our Schools to Work program, as I said, it's a $3.5

54:24 - million is where we have been.

54:25 - If we can double that amount

54:27 - to a $7 million investment, we can double the outcomes.

54:30 - So we have 17 programs this year that we were able to put money

54:33 - into seed money to be able to roll out the programs.

54:36 - I was talking about the Susquehanna Township School District program yesterday

54:41 - that was preparing young people to become teachers

54:44 - or paraprofessionals if they chose that line of work.

54:47 - So focusing on the areas

54:49 - with the governor's identified in his economic development plan,

54:52 - as well as health care and education and building and construction trades,

54:57 - we really tried to be aligned with the workforce needs in the areas

55:00 - and we look at the projected impact of each of the programs as we consider them.

55:05 - There were many, many more programs,

55:07 - and we were able to grant funding to this year,

55:08 - and we just want to increase the reach of that.

55:11 - So I want to get into that to the weeds

55:12 - a little bit, because that that on a surface

55:15 - sounds great, but I think we owe it to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania

55:18 - to make sure that these programs aren't just using

55:21 - or are being used for political goodwill.

55:23 - So specifically, where is the money from, from these allocations?

55:28 - Is it going to the school districts?

55:29 - Is it going to the employers?

55:31 - Is it going for administration costs?

55:33 - How is this money specifically being driven out?

55:36 - I'm going to ask the deputy secretary to get into the administrative.

55:38 - We spend a bit on that. Thank you.

55:41 - Thank you so much for the question.

55:43 - So these grants are administered through a competitive

55:45 - grant process, political and well,

55:49 - sorry.

55:50 - Political goodwill is what often we see it happening with respect to that.

55:53 - But but thank you. Okay.

55:55 - So the eligible applicants

55:58 - are partnerships between schools, businesses

56:02 - and organizations that could be a workforce board.

56:04 - That could be another, community organization that offers workforce

56:08 - training.

56:09 - There is administrative caps on all of these grants,

56:12 - and the funding goes out to support the direct training

56:16 - of the young people, and other activities that are hands on training.

56:22 - So I appreciate that.

56:23 - But what I am hearing is that the money is going

56:26 - to some intermediary to decide how it's going to be divvied out,

56:29 - where who ultimately is that money going to?

56:32 - Is it going to the school districts to to develop curriculum?

56:36 - Is it going to the student for wages?

56:38 - Is it going to the employer?

56:40 - Are those local questions then that those local partnerships are deciding?

56:44 - It depends on each of

56:45 - the each of the grants look differently depending upon the community,

56:50 - the needs and the industries that they're focused on.

56:52 - And what are we doing to ensure that there's no insider dealing

56:56 - or conflicts of interest?

56:57 - That's making sure,

56:58 - what are we doing to protect this money, to make sure it's going for the intended

57:02 - purpose and not just going to line somebody's pockets.

57:05 - We have really strong processes

57:07 - related to the procurement of the grants, as well as the management of the grants.

57:11 - There are monthly and quarterly reportings that we are reviewing.

57:17 - The, the, the so my yellow light came on.

57:20 - So just really quickly and I apologize, I'd love to follow up with this.

57:23 - Are CTCs able to directly apply

57:26 - for this funding themselves independently?

57:29 - They'd have to be with a partnership of other organizations.

57:32 - Okay.

57:34 - If if they if is this program the additional funds?

57:37 - One of the things that was also noted in the, in the budgets,

57:41 - address was that there was a decrease that I think,

57:43 - I believe 2.5 million in apprenticeship training.

57:47 - Is this just shifting those funds to this other program so I can speak to that?

57:52 - We've asked for $10 million every time I've sat here, and you all have added

57:56 - that extra 2.5 million.

57:57 - So we are looking for the same as we've made happy

58:00 - to take the additional resources if you'd like to give them to us.

58:02 - Thank you. I'm out of time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

58:04 - Thank the gentlelady, Representative Kincaid.

58:07 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

58:09 - We talked a lot about apprenticeships, but I actually want to talk about mentoring,

58:13 - because it's proven,

58:16 - to be an effective strategy for businesses to support new and existing employees

58:21 - and actually assist with engagement and retention.

58:26 - So as we're talking

58:27 - about, you know, workforce development and, and ensuring that,

58:31 - folks are able to get employment and keep employees,

58:36 - how is mentoring represented in the workforce development and the labor

58:41 - and industry budget in order to help young adults and, and even, returning citizens

58:47 - throughout the Commonwealth feel supported and satisfied in their workplace.

58:51 - That's a great question. And mentoring is so important.

58:53 - I'd love to talk with you about ways to sort of expand that as a component,

58:57 - a key component of workforce development, particularly in the reentry space.

59:01 - Speak to that for a moment.

59:03 - We received an almost $10 million

59:06 - grant, a $9.5 million grant a couple of years ago from the U.S.

59:10 - dol to start a program, a reentry program for folks that are in federal prisons

59:15 - across Pennsylvania and part of, sort of as an expansion of that,

59:20 - we were able to get another $1.5 million that was specifically for mentoring.

59:24 - So the first part of the program is to identify what people are

59:27 - still incarcerated, sort of identify skill set, come up with training plans.

59:31 - Second is to sort of transition them into the middle place

59:34 - and get the skills training they need.

59:36 - And finally, to help people with, you know, treatment, support, housing,

59:40 - other supports to get them into jobs and find fair opportunity employers.

59:45 - But this mentoring piece is so critical because it actually puts a mentor

59:49 - with every person who's coming out so that they have someone to to talk

59:53 - to, work with, whether it's just for housing supports, whether it's

59:56 - 763 to continue with work for work place, skill development, whatever it may be.

01:00 - 05.835 But to your point, people who have those kinds of supports, it reduces recidivism.

01:00 - 07.270 It makes people more successful

01:00 - 10.707 when they have someone to talk to and look up to and get pointers from.

01:00 - 13.810 So it's just a wonderful component of the workforce system.

01:00 - 14.911 Thank you.

01:00 - 16.312 I would love to talk to you more about

01:00 - 19.983 how we can include that to one, help people with recidivism.

01:00 - 24.654 And also to ensure that younger folks are not in the system in the first place

01:00 - 27.357 because they have the supports. That would be great. Thank you.

01:00 - 30.927 What protections for workers

01:00 - 34.030 at all stages of the citizenship process?

01:00 - 39.168 Are are you guys contemplating or do you have it in place

01:00 - 43.272 when it comes to this increased, federal enforcement

01:00 - 45.608 on immigration? We're seeing a lot of people

01:00 - 48.611 who are lawfully in the United States being detained.

01:00 - 53.616 And I'm wondering if the you guys are working to educate, employers

01:00 - 57.387 or to otherwise assist those workers,

01:00 - 00.990 who are a little bit afraid right now of actually going to work

01:01 - 03.893 and being picked up. Yeah. So that's that's a great question.

01:01 - 08.498 So we don't have any enforcement authority in with regard to immigration.

01:01 - 12.535 So we enforce our laws irrespective of anybody's status.

01:01 - 14.070 And that's what we're charged to do.

01:01 - 17.440 What I can tell you though, is that when workers, whether they have

01:01 - 20.576 appropriate work papers or they don't, whether they're citizens or they're not,

01:01 - 24.580 when people are afraid to go to work because of the color of their skin

01:01 - 28.951 or or just afraid to go to work, it hurts us in enforcing our laws, right?

01:01 - 30.420 Because when people are afraid to talk

01:01 - 32.522 to government, they sort of lump us all together.

01:01 - 33.289 And they don't know that.

01:01 - 35.024 Labor law investigators from Pennsylvania

01:01 - 37.026 are not concerned about their immigration status

01:01 - 40.296 and just want to make sure that children aren't being abused on the worksite.

01:01 - 44.500 So we always try to educate workers whenever we have the opportunity

01:01 - 47.336 and employers about what we enforce,

01:01 - 50.006 and the ways that they can be compliant with law.

01:01 - 51.107 Thank you.

01:01 - 54.177 And then I want to ask about, paid family leave.

01:01 - 57.814 Obviously, we have not, accomplished getting that across the finish line here.

01:01 - 03.186 It's been a consistent push from, from the governor and, and this administration.

01:02 - 07.056 And I'm wondering if you can talk about the benefits of paid family

01:02 - 11.761 leave and, how this administration would envision enacting that.

01:02 - 14.897 So I think we'd be very happy to talk with you about

01:02 - 17.967 any legislative strategies that we could get through.

01:02 - 20.970 But, you know, any time, any time that we can support families,

01:02 - 23.272 we are supporting the workforce, right?

01:02 - 24.340 So whether that's anything

01:02 - 27.710 from giving people paid family leave to childcare, right.

01:02 - 30.713 So we'll make it possible for people to go to work,

01:02 - 32.215 and to take care of their families.

01:02 - 34.350 It's a win for Pennsylvania.

01:02 - 37.053 And it and it increases the retention as well.

01:02 - 39.422 Certainly. That right certainly does.

01:02 - 40.656 Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:02 - 43.493 Thank you, general.

01:02 - 45.862 Lady representative Mako.

01:02 - 46.529 Thank you, Mr. Cruz.

01:02 - 51.334 Not wearing a turtleneck I know I dropped I dropped the ball next Tuesday.

01:02 - 52.268 I'm on it.

01:02 - 54.270 I don't actually own a turtleneck.

01:02 - 57.273 So, like, blasphemy. That is blasphemy, sir.

01:02 - 59.809 I don't want to have that stricken from the record I got.

01:02 - 01.911 I got braces on. No, you got your braces on.

01:03 - 02.512 All right, all right.

01:03 - 05.515 Fair enough, fair enough.

01:03 - 08.451 On topic, Madam Secretary.

01:03 - 10.653 Not men's fashion, but,

01:03 - 14.657 I had a question about the worker ministration compensation fund.

01:03 - 19.862 For my understanding, there's a $5.5 million increase this year,

01:03 - 24.901 and it was outlined as security upgrades and functional improvements

01:03 - 29.172 within the platforms for external users within the insurance industry.

01:03 - 33.810 And I just was hoping you could speak to why these improvements,

01:03 - 37.246 how they'll help people in the insurance industry

01:03 - 40.249 and what was identified to,

01:03 - 44.754 increase the spending and get these security,

01:03 - 46.422 protocols in place.

01:03 - 48.090 Yeah, I think it's all good news.

01:03 - 49.258 So I'm going to let,

01:03 - 52.228 Deputy Secretary Mallory talk a bit more about the roll out of the.

01:03 - 54.363 Welcome back to my floor. Thank you.

01:03 - 55.598 Thank you for the question.

01:03 - 00.503 Pretty much every enhancement right now being considered or,

01:04 - 04.507 implemented within is, is being driven by stakeholder engagement.

01:04 - 08.411 So we routinely meet with, the insurance industry.

01:04 - 11.714 We have a monthly call with them that is that is heavily attended, usually

01:04 - 14.917 between 75 and 100 representatives from insurance.

01:04 - 19.889 We have regular meetings with trial bar, both claimant and defense.

01:04 - 24.760 We have quarterly meetings, the Workers Compensation Advisory Council

01:04 - 28.064 and it is it is through that, communication

01:04 - 33.002 and this consistent meeting, that we are presented with,

01:04 - 36.772 no, I don't want to call them issues, but essentially ways

01:04 - 39.775 that we can make the system that we have run better.

01:04 - 44.046 So anything that is, contained in these current,

01:04 - 47.950 enhancements, is being driven by stakeholders.

01:04 - 50.586 It's coming from stakeholder request.

01:04 - 53.389 On the other end is our security measure.

01:04 - 55.925 So we're doing some multi-factor authentication.

01:04 - 57.693 We're doing some i.t me,

01:04 - 01.163 just things to ensure that we don't experience any type of fraud

01:05 - 03.833 or any type of, breach of our current system

01:05 - 06.569 because it is a system that really works well,

01:05 - 10.006 and has worked well consistently since it was, established.

01:05 - 10.339 Yeah.

01:05 - 13.442 And I guess that's ou where I'm going with this

01:05 - 16.445 question is what security protocols are you putting in place?

01:05 - 19.448 Is there something that we should be doing or looking at more?

01:05 - 23.219 From the general Assembly's point of view, that would help

01:05 - 26.622 in, securing these, I guess.

01:05 - 29.592 Yeah. I never want to. I never want to turn down assistance.

01:05 - 31.961 But, the Bureau of Workers Compensation is funded

01:05 - 36.232 through assessments on, insurance carriers and self-insured employers.

01:05 - 41.304 And I can tell you that,

01:05 - 45.274 We don't receive complaints,

01:05 - 48.911 from those entities with regard to the assessments that that

01:05 - 50.613 that they are required to pay

01:05 - 53.783 because the system works so well and they know that they can rely upon it.

01:05 - 57.720 So while we appreciate your offer, if if we need it, we will certainly ask.

01:05 - 00.556 But at this point in time, I'm not here with an ask.

01:06 - 02.625 Well, we're from the government and we're here to help.

01:06 - 06.429 So thank you very much, Madam Secretary. And,

01:06 - 09.966 Mr. Chairman, I appreciate it. Thank you.

01:06 - 11.767 Thank you,

01:06 - 12.601 thank the gentleman.

01:06 - 15.171 Representative Donohue.

01:06 - 17.139 Thank you. And thank you all for being here.

01:06 - 19.141 Secretary Walker, you have highlighted in the past

01:06 - 22.178 that worker misclassification has been a problem in Pennsylvania.

01:06 - 25.348 Misclassification strips workers of protections

01:06 - 29.218 and benefits like worker's compensation and employment, creates unfair

01:06 - 32.221 competition and reduces public tax revenue.

01:06 - 35.992 I'm the prime sponsor of HB 721, which strengthens

01:06 - 39.996 strengthens the construction Workplace Misclassification

01:06 - 43.299 Act and includes several unanimous recommendation recommendations

01:06 - 46.969 made by the Joint Task Force on Misclassification of Employees.

01:06 - 51.040 HB 721 passed out of the House with bipartisan support

01:06 - 53.743 last May, but is still yet to be considered by the Senate.

01:06 - 55.411 Could you

01:06 - 58.414 just share with us any misclassification statistics,

01:06 - 02.251 you might have from over the last year or so to hopefully move

01:07 - 05.921 this process, process along and of course, and thank you.

01:07 - 09.625 I, as you know, Attorney General Shapiro was on the construction,

01:07 - 13.462 misclassification task force, and, I was his delegate on that.

01:07 - 14.630 So a delegate on that.

01:07 - 18.034 So, we appreciate the movement in the House

01:07 - 21.270 to adopt, many of those recommendations.

01:07 - 22.905 You know, it continues to be a problem.

01:07 - 25.908 You you've you've heard some of the statistics here today.

01:07 - 29.612 For us, you know, our unemployment tax folks in routine

01:07 - 33.082 audits came up with almost 22,000 misclassified workers.

01:07 - 37.553 We've had 2800 identified through the Bureau of Labor Law compliance.

01:07 - 41.690 It's a huge problem because when people misclassified the workers, which means

01:07 - 46.862 they're not paying the taxes, they're saving hugely in in a competitive market.

01:07 - 47.329 They are

01:07 - 48.330 they are, in fact,

01:07 - 52.168 as Representative Nelson said, they are getting a 30% discount on their bids.

01:07 - 53.636 So it's a huge problem.

01:07 - 57.106 And the way to fix big problems is to

01:07 - 00.843 I think, really be able to enforce the, you know, enforce a strong law.

01:08 - 04.847 And so we encourage you to chat with your colleagues on the other side to

01:08 - 06.482 to get that through.

01:08 - 08.484 Thank you. And I'm looking forward to working with you on that.

01:08 - 09.485 You as well. Thank you.

01:08 - 15.391 Thank you.

01:08 - 15.758 Gentlemen.

01:08 - 18.360 Representative Riker, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:08 - 20.229 Good morning. Secretary.

01:08 - 23.799 Just wanted to talk a little bit about, the governor's minimum wage proposal.

01:08 - 25.868 And I know it's been touched on a little bit here, but it's it's

01:08 - 29.672 obviously a pretty critical component of his his budget proposals.

01:08 - 33.075 Just to get an idea of the scope of workers

01:08 - 36.212 who would be impacted by an increase to $15 minimum

01:08 - 39.381 wage, how many workers in Pennsylvania would with that impact?

01:08 - 39.782 Yeah.

01:08 - 42.785 So according to our, minimum wage report, we're looking at

01:08 - 47.790 553,800 workers who are making between minimum wage and $15 an hour.

01:08 - 48.224 Okay.

01:08 - 51.227 Is that is that more or less than last year?

01:08 - 54.230 I don't remember the exactly the numbers from last year.

01:08 - 56.966 You don't if you don't remember it was higher or lower, I don't know.

01:08 - 59.201 You know, I don't remember okay. I don't I'm sorry.

01:08 - 02.037 It wouldn't it would have been 707,000 last year.

01:09 - 02.271 Maybe.

01:09 - 06.442 That could very well be the trend is that is that is going down right.

01:09 - 07.309 It seems like there are more

01:09 - 11.614 and more workers who are making above the the impacted wage.

01:09 - 13.816 Or would that would that be a correct assumption?

01:09 - 18.454 If the numbers of, okay, 200,000 additional half million workers that are affected,

01:09 - 20.222 what are those?

01:09 - 21.924 Are those workers like high school students?

01:09 - 24.660 What what would you, how would you classify some of those workers?

01:09 - 25.861 You know, I actually wonder.

01:09 - 29.732 The same thing, as it turns out, almost 87% of people who are making

01:09 - 31.100 minimum wage are 20 and older.

01:09 - 34.103 So it's not just high school students that are working part time.

01:09 - 37.773 It's 20 year olds and 40 year olds and 50 year olds are making minimum

01:09 - 38.541 wage as well.

01:09 - 41.544 I mean, what would it be roughly say, just looking at the report here,

01:09 - 44.580 over half are under the age of 24.

01:09 - 46.849 I don't know, I don't know to that degree.

01:09 - 47.783 Okay. Sorry.

01:09 - 51.320 It's just looking at conversely they're typically more on the younger side.

01:09 - 54.957 And then as as people go up through the demographic change, they

01:09 - 56.458 the percentage drops off.

01:09 - 58.360 Would that would that be a correct assumption

01:09 - 59.094 just reading through that

01:09 - 02.932 may be, but okay, anybody who's making minimum wage is making minimum wage.

01:10 - 05.935 So whether you're a young family or whether you're a young person

01:10 - 09.505 who's trying to contribute to the family electric bill, it's still 725 an hour.

01:10 - 10.039 Sure.

01:10 - 11.874 But I mean, obviously, I guess as you get older

01:10 - 15.077 and you gain more experience and your employment ability goes up,

01:10 - 16.979 then the wages tend to increase. With that,

01:10 - 19.949 we would I don't know that that's the case

01:10 - 22.952 for every family, but certainly I think that would be what we'd hope.

01:10 - 25.187 Well, and and then

01:10 - 28.557 just again taking a look at minimum wage policy, generally speaking,

01:10 - 33.495 the House passed a bill, I think it was 1549, earlier this year.

01:10 - 38.067 Well, I guess 2025, that phased in the minimum wage by county.

01:10 - 40.236 Is that is that the position that the administration in?

01:10 - 44.807 And I support phasing in the minimum wage based off of county classification.

01:10 - 48.711 Are you looking for an overall just all of a sudden we're hitting,

01:10 - 52.281 $15 across the Commonwealth, the governor is calling for

01:10 - 55.551 an immediate increase to minimum wages, you know, to $15 an hour.

01:10 - 56.252 Okay.

01:10 - 59.788 Certainly movement in any direction is movement in a direction.

01:11 - 03.392 But he would like to have the $15 an hour in place immediately.

01:11 - 04.760 Okay, good.

01:11 - 07.162 Thank you. Secretary, I really appreciate the clarification.

01:11 - 08.130 Thank you. Thank you,

01:11 - 11.900 thank the gentleman, Representative Brennan.

01:11 - 13.168 Thank you. Chairman.

01:11 - 13.936 Thank you. Secretary.

01:11 - 16.372 Thanks for for being here today with us this morning.

01:11 - 19.842 There were some specific questions asked about the, increase that we have

01:11 - 24.213 a $3.5 million increase in schools to work that's being proposed.

01:11 - 27.616 You know, I'm seeing, our education

01:11 - 30.619 institutions looking more towards experiential learning.

01:11 - 32.221 Mentorships are all so important.

01:11 - 35.224 Can you just tell us about some of the impacts,

01:11 - 38.727 that this program has already had and maybe some of the,

01:11 - 41.530 some of the pathways that it's already funded?

01:11 - 42.231 Yeah. That's great.

01:11 - 45.634 So really so many different pathways across the state.

01:11 - 49.171 As I said, we have, you know, 17 awardees that we just announced yesterday.

01:11 - 54.443 So everything from education to folks that are working in skilled trades,

01:11 - 58.447 manufacturing new there's an endless opportunity for young people.

01:11 - 02.051 And these are programs that give them the opportunity to go out and see

01:12 - 05.421 what a job looks like, get skills, get certifications,

01:12 - 08.724 and perhaps even dual, are able to be dual enrolled.

01:12 - 12.895 So it's it really can touch any area, any subject

01:12 - 16.498 matter that's an in-demand job, in any part of the state.

01:12 - 17.733 All right.

01:12 - 21.036 And, as a former worker's comp attorney, I know there's,

01:12 - 24.306 benefits are always an issue.

01:12 - 27.609 One of the, you know, one of the things that I've been looking at this year

01:12 - 31.213 is the death benefit House bill, 2049.

01:12 - 33.482 There's bipartisan support for that.

01:12 - 37.986 The average funeral costs in Pennsylvania are upwards of $20,000.

01:12 - 40.989 The current benefit rate, is 7000.

01:12 - 45.928 Thankfully, we are seeing over the last several years declining, rates of of folks

01:12 - 48.997 passing away in the workplace, or at least, claims being made.

01:12 - 51.400 I'm wondering, is there any interest?

01:12 - 54.603 I mean, some of these folks, you know, the only,

01:12 - 59.241 only recovery they have is workers comp, they're they're tragically killed.

01:12 - 00.943 Their families are left,

01:13 - 04.813 trying to pick up the pieces afterwards and then deal with, with the burial.

01:13 - 07.549 They have no other another no other recourse.

01:13 - 12.488 So is there any, interest in having, that death benefit?

01:13 - 13.021 Sort of,

01:13 - 14.556 get a little

01:13 - 17.559 closer to what the market in Pennsylvania is doing.

01:13 - 21.130 And do we have any idea, given the declining death rates,

01:13 - 24.633 if that would have, a nominal impact, significant impact,

01:13 - 27.603 or any impact on, on insurance premiums in Pennsylvania?

01:13 - 31.373 I don't know what impact it would have, but we're certainly happy to talk with you

01:13 - 33.742 about giving benefits to to working families

01:13 - 35.944 who've been affected by an injury or death in the workplace.

01:13 - 38.046 For sure.

01:13 - 40.416 Has there has that's fine.

01:13 - 44.553 And, regarding, another bill that's currently proposed, Chair Dawkins,

01:13 - 48.090 House bill 183, full body scarring,

01:13 - 52.094 is there has there been one of the things I often hear is administer?

01:13 - 56.498 Bill, has there been any thoughts on, how the department might implement that if,

01:13 - 59.301 if the bill does get through the Senate,

01:13 - 01.470 I'm going to pass it over to Deputy Secretary Mueller.

01:14 - 01.837 I can't

01:14 - 04.406 thank you, Representative Brennan.

01:14 - 07.042 I can tell you that. Yeah, we have discussed it.

01:14 - 09.478 Spoke with Holly San Angelo, who is the director of the Worker's

01:14 - 11.313 Compensation Office of Adjudication.

01:14 - 15.184 Alf Roney, the, chairman of the Workers Compensation Appeal Board.

01:14 - 17.953 And, the thought is that it would be administered

01:14 - 20.222 through the existing system that we currently have.

01:14 - 24.393 So, these injured workers would present to, worker's compensation judge.

01:14 - 29.064 They'd have to either display physically in person or via photograph.

01:14 - 32.468 The disfigurement from that point, the worker's

01:14 - 36.572 compensation judge would determine whether it was serious and permanent,

01:14 - 40.742 whether or not it was work related, an issue in order, certainly.

01:14 - 44.012 The judges and the members of the appeal board understand

01:14 - 47.115 the vulnerability here, the potential for embarrassment.

01:14 - 51.019 I can assure you and, you know, as a practicing worker's compensation

01:14 - 55.691 attorney, that that our judges and our commissioners are extremely professional

01:14 - 59.461 and they will do everything in their power to reduce the potential

01:14 - 02.564 of an injured worker to have to relive a traumatic event like that,

01:15 - 06.602 and handle those cases with the utmost, discreteness.

01:15 - 07.769 Okay.

01:15 - 11.206 And, under the current bill, serious and permanent is still a requirement.

01:15 - 14.076 So there's no concern that this is going to be every type of injury.

01:15 - 16.044 It's going to be serious and permanent still.

01:15 - 17.813 Yes. And it's going to I mean, we're obviously

01:15 - 19.781 we're going to see an increase in the number of claims,

01:15 - 22.784 an increase in the number of in-person hearing requests,

01:15 - 26.388 so that the injured workers could, show those,

01:15 - 29.458 show that disfigurement to the judge or the commissioner.

01:15 - 31.593 We're prepared for that.

01:15 - 34.029 Okay. And thanks for your time this morning.

01:15 - 34.429 Thank you.

01:15 - 39.535 Thank the gentleman, representative Marcel.

01:15 - 41.603 Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

01:15 - 44.606 And thank you so much to all of you for being here this morning.

01:15 - 48.544 I wanted to talk about,

01:15 - 51.313 the unemployment compensation call centers.

01:15 - 54.483 I wanted to, compliment you guys.

01:15 - 58.120 I'm sure you don't get that very often, but,

01:15 - 58.820 I've.

01:15 - 01.490 Every year I call in to see how long it takes

01:16 - 03.258 and that every single year goes down.

01:16 - 06.728 And so I just wanted to compliment you on the fact that you've been

01:16 - 10.365 making progress in that area, because I also I would say that

01:16 - 14.503 that also trickles down to my district office, because we've also seen

01:16 - 17.706 those numbers go down in terms of the number of people who need help

01:16 - 19.608 because they can't figure out what to do.

01:16 - 23.412 So I just wanted to compliment you also on making it more user friendly and,

01:16 - 27.349 because obviously when our constituents

01:16 - 29.618 can't navigate government, they get frustrated.

01:16 - 32.554 So I just wanted to to thank you and start on that.

01:16 - 34.957 On that positive note of thank you.

01:16 - 36.992 And thank you for the continued support, financial.

01:16 - 38.093 Thank you.

01:16 - 41.330 And so, I wanted to talk

01:16 - 44.333 a little bit about the service and infrastructure improvement Fund.

01:16 - 48.570 And so the the governor obviously recognizes

01:16 - 51.673 the importance of the call centers and making sure

01:16 - 54.676 that this is, something that's helpful for our constituents.

01:16 - 59.081 And so he's proposing another service, an infrastructure improvement

01:16 - 05.020 fund authorization of 115.6 million for fiscal year 2627.

01:17 - 10.492 And according to your budget materials, there are about 1638 full time

01:17 - 15.764 staff across all unemployment compensation bureaus and offices at the end of 2025,

01:17 - 20.035 which is 51 positions less than at the end of 2024.

01:17 - 25.707 Your budget for 2627 proposes 1682 positions,

01:17 - 28.710 which is very close to the amount at the end of 2024.

01:17 - 31.913 And so I was just wondering if you could speak a little bit about,

01:17 - 35.584 really, what do you think is the optimal number of positions,

01:17 - 39.421 in that area, you know, kind of trying to forecast out

01:17 - 43.325 and then also trying to make sure that you're continuing to improve

01:17 - 45.961 and the level of service for our, you know,

01:17 - 47.529 our constituents across the Commonwealth.

01:17 - 49.231 So thank you very much for that question.

01:17 - 50.198 As you know, that

01:17 - 53.735 first year we were looking to find sort of what that sweet spot was to get

01:17 - 57.673 enough staff to be really working with the people of Pennsylvania

01:17 - 01.343 and taking the work from your offices and, and not to be overstaffed.

01:18 - 04.980 And we decided that that was 380 additional intake interviewers.

01:18 - 08.050 So that's that additional compliment was added to our staff.

01:18 - 11.086 But as time has gone on, we're not at pandemic levels

01:18 - 13.989 or super high unemployment levels right now, thank God.

01:18 - 16.758 So we have and there's attrition, right.

01:18 - 19.861 So we are trying to be thoughtful about how we staff up

01:18 - 23.432 so that we have, you know, sort of enough, but not too many people.

01:18 - 27.602 We're having a spring and fall training class in five of our, six,

01:18 - 30.906 you see service centers, we're going to be adding another 120 people.

01:18 - 35.577 If for some reason unemployment ticks up, we will add to that complement.

01:18 - 38.613 If unemployment stays the same or ticks down, then we'll,

01:18 - 41.583 you know, let positions attract and fill them when we need to.

01:18 - 43.452 But we're trying to be really content.

01:18 - 46.388 But it does take time to train people obviously, but trying to be real

01:18 - 48.390 thoughtful, really thoughtful and intentional

01:18 - 50.025 about how many people we have on staff.

01:18 - 54.663 So we're maximizing you know, customer service, but not over staffing.

01:18 - 57.499 At the same time. Okay. That's great. Thank you so much.

01:18 - 00.068 I appreciate, your response and the work you do.

01:19 - 01.269 Thank you. Miss you so much.

01:19 - 06.908 Thank the gentlelady, representative Mason.

01:19 - 09.745 Happy women's history month.

01:19 - 12.180 Welcome, Secretary Walker.

01:19 - 13.849 Great to have you back here.

01:19 - 18.420 I have questions, of course, about women workers, in our commonwealth

01:19 - 21.423 and just some national trends that we are seeing.

01:19 - 25.694 My first question is actually to talk to you about the Pennsylvania

01:19 - 27.662 Crown Act, which is now in the law

01:19 - 30.665 and our Commonwealth to end race based hair discrimination

01:19 - 35.137 and so much of that type of discrimination happens in the workplace.

01:19 - 38.974 And it has impacted black Pennsylvanians for generations,

01:19 - 41.977 and particularly black women workers.

01:19 - 45.113 So now that we have passed this landmark legislation

01:19 - 48.884 and shout out to our speaker McClinton, who was Co-Prime sponsor on this bill,

01:19 - 52.487 when there is landmark civil rights

01:19 - 55.457 legislation, it has to do with employment.

01:19 - 57.993 What, what kind of approach or strategy

01:19 - 03.064 does your department take to educate, not only workers

01:20 - 08.103 and employees about these expanded, workplace protections?

01:20 - 11.573 So because this is in our space from an enforcement

01:20 - 14.709 standpoint, we're not out training investigators for enforcement purposes.

01:20 - 18.680 But we certainly when we are sought, when people seek resources from us,

01:20 - 20.849 we make sure we connect them with those resources.

01:20 - 23.919 So we make sure that we provide a resource for the education

01:20 - 27.088 for people who need to have more information.

01:20 - 30.725 So an enforcement we know that the Pennsylvania Human Relations

01:20 - 33.728 Commission, is the first point of contact for

01:20 - 36.731 someone who has experienced this type of discrimination.

01:20 - 39.968 How would or do you work with the commission

01:20 - 43.305 around, enforcement of workplace discrimination?

01:20 - 46.741 So we actually don't play a role in enforcement.

01:20 - 47.275 But again,

01:20 - 50.946 we certainly are able to connect people to resources when they have a concern,

01:20 - 53.949 a discriminatory concern about discrimination in the workplace.

01:20 - 55.217 Thank you, Secretary.

01:20 - 00.789 And my next question is about the exodus of women from the workplace.

01:21 - 03.291 From employment.

01:21 - 06.595 We are seeing staggering numbers of women

01:21 - 10.165 who have left, the job market.

01:21 - 13.702 And largely they are citing childcare,

01:21 - 16.972 caregiving responsibilities and layoffs,

01:21 - 22.077 and specifically for black women, in the work who have had to exit,

01:21 - 26.314 the job market, we're talking about 300,000,

01:21 - 28.950 of black women across this nation.

01:21 - 33.154 They are also experiencing those challenges, in addition to,

01:21 - 37.292 the changes in Dei efforts as well as,

01:21 - 40.629 just a shrinking market, for them.

01:21 - 46.501 So my question to you is the are we seeing these kinds of trends here

01:21 - 50.071 in Pennsylvania, in the Commonwealth, and what are your thoughts or

01:21 - 54.342 what are your strategies around how do we support women workers?

01:21 - 58.914 How do we attract them back to employment and the job market?

01:21 - 00.415 That's a great question.

01:22 - 02.851 And that is something that we've been giving a good deal of thought to.

01:22 - 06.521 So you particularly women, are impacted by a lack of childcare

01:22 - 10.358 across the state as well as care for their aging parents.

01:22 - 10.659 Right.

01:22 - 13.828 And women are often put in the caretaker role for both sort

01:22 - 16.831 of those those ends of their family concerns.

01:22 - 19.601 For us, we want to make sure that we are doing

01:22 - 23.505 everything we can to support robust childcare programs across the state

01:22 - 27.175 to make sure that we are getting people into workforce programs, not just,

01:22 - 30.211 you know, jobs of the moment, but really into career

01:22 - 32.447 pathways with family sustaining wages and benefits.

01:22 - 34.082 So we are targeting,

01:22 - 37.619 grant opportunities to create like apprenticeship programs in that space.

01:22 - 38.887 We're supporting.

01:22 - 39.854 There recently

01:22 - 41.856 was a registered apprenticeship program

01:22 - 45.994 that was registered around the Johnstown area that was supporting women, becoming

01:22 - 49.364 childcare workers and certified pre pre-K teachers.

01:22 - 51.166 In rural communities,

01:22 - 52.100 we want to make sure

01:22 - 55.770 that we are giving people the resources so that they can enter the workplace,

01:22 - 58.673 because we certainly need the workers in the workplace.

01:22 - 59.407 Thank you for that.

01:22 - 00.809 And childcare obviously

01:23 - 05.246 is essential for an economy to thrive, especially here in our Commonwealth.

01:23 - 10.485 And just to note that at the beginning of 2025, black women had an unemployment

01:23 - 14.556 rate of 5.4%, and at the end of 2025,

01:23 - 18.660 it had risen dramatically to 7.3%.

01:23 - 23.298 I know you may not have the statistics now, but I love to get where women

01:23 - 27.268 what the unemployment rate for women and black women and women of color

01:23 - 28.703 is in our commonwealth,

01:23 - 32.841 and maybe that can inform and guide your work around the workforce

01:23 - 37.779 development apprenticeship programs that we clearly need for for women.

01:23 - 41.516 And I understand in this Commonwealth that they are welcome in the workplace.

01:23 - 46.221 It sounds like inflexibility in the workplace has also become an issue.

01:23 - 50.191 And my colleagues and I, we have introduced a variety of bills

01:23 - 55.163 that are meant to make working for working moms, especially moms of young children,

01:23 - 58.433 to be able to get in and stay in the workforce

01:23 - 00.502 and not feel like they've been pushed out.

01:24 - 01.636 So thank you, Secretary.

01:24 - 04.806 I look forward to working with you on all of that and more.

01:24 - 06.374 I appreciate your leadership.

01:24 - 08.676 Thank you. And we'll get you the statistics representative.

01:24 - 11.746 Thank you, thank you, thank the gentlelady, Representative Kale.

01:24 - 14.182 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:24 - 17.185 Thank you, Madam Secretary, for being here today.

01:24 - 20.121 I wish we had more time to discuss this particular topic,

01:24 - 23.591 because it could probably dictate an entire hearing, probably longer.

01:24 - 26.728 But the advent of artificial intelligence

01:24 - 29.731 and how it impacts the labor market.

01:24 - 30.632 I'm curious.

01:24 - 31.599 You know,

01:24 - 34.335 we hear reports from very smart people

01:24 - 37.338 that know this subject a heck of a lot better than I do,

01:24 - 41.443 that it's going to dramatically impact the labor market soon within the next,

01:24 - 45.313 you know, six months to a year, we're going to see dramatic changes in

01:24 - 48.316 certain types of, of jobs and, and,

01:24 - 52.754 maybe even mass unemployment in certain, areas.

01:24 - 54.289 And I was curious,

01:24 - 55.356 what's your perspective

01:24 - 58.526 at the Department of Labor and how do you see artificial intelligence

01:24 - 01.529 impacting the labor markets in the Commonwealth?

01:25 - 04.432 Well, you could certainly spend a whole hearing on these issues.

01:25 - 07.869 And people are certainly there's going to be some job elimination.

01:25 - 11.573 There's going to be job creation, and there's going to be job transformation.

01:25 - 11.906 Right?

01:25 - 13.808 So at the Department of Labor and Industry,

01:25 - 15.810 we're working with other colleague agencies.

01:25 - 20.215 We are in the process of trying to commission like a really robust study,

01:25 - 23.818 to be able to see really where we can make sure that we are

01:25 - 26.921 helping people transition out of jobs that may be

01:25 - 31.292 that may be eliminated because of AI, but also making sure that they're trained

01:25 - 35.063 and ready to to pivot as jobs transform because of AI.

01:25 - 38.566 So we're really at the, you know, sort of still in the thinking phases

01:25 - 42.203 of how to really have a state wide impact from a workforce perspective.

01:25 - 46.207 But we are looking forward to continuing to get engaged in the subject.

01:25 - 46.708 Yeah.

01:25 - 50.078 And when I was growing up western Pennsylvania, my grandfather

01:25 - 55.083 from Aliquippa, he saw the mill shut down and he used to drill in us.

01:25 - 56.551 You got to get a college education.

01:25 - 58.653 You got to get a college education.

01:25 - 59.320 If you're going to be

01:25 - 03.224 a productive member of society, you need to have a college education. And.

01:26 - 06.928 And today, it seems like things have changed quite dramatically.

01:26 - 08.463 I'm a father.

01:26 - 11.132 There are many children within my district as well.

01:26 - 14.402 Jobs for them.

01:26 - 16.337 What should we be doing as a legislator?

01:26 - 19.207 What should we be doing as a state government?

01:26 - 20.808 To encourage, jobs?

01:26 - 22.243 What type of jobs, I guess.

01:26 - 25.747 Should we be directing our kids to go to, boy?

01:26 - 27.015 Well, certainly.

01:26 - 28.249 Jobs that don't require

01:26 - 31.319 a college degree are in full demand across the Commonwealth.

01:26 - 34.522 So jobs in the building and construction trades and manufacturing

01:26 - 35.890 and some of these other key areas

01:26 - 38.893 of the governor's identified in his economic development plan,

01:26 - 42.730 I think you identify sort of that recent college graduate age

01:26 - 47.001 is probably the most vulnerable to AI because they're just sort of learning,

01:26 - 48.770 as they come out of school.

01:26 - 52.273 And that's an area that we really, you know, need to focus on and find ways

01:26 - 56.077 to to make sure that we're upskilling and transitioning people into jobs.

01:26 - 57.812 But I think

01:26 - 01.649 these are all questions that we just have to keep looking at together.

01:27 - 04.285 And ask folks to do some studies to figure out

01:27 - 07.288 if we can project where some of these jobs will go.

01:27 - 09.324 How soon do you think we'll be feeling?

01:27 - 11.426 I know we're feeling it now.

01:27 - 14.429 Impact artificial intelligence in different places.

01:27 - 19.267 But as far as seeing real changes within the job market,

01:27 - 22.804 do you think it's going to be within the next year, couple of years?

01:27 - 26.274 I think we're seeing it now, and I think we're going to continue to see it.

01:27 - 28.076 I don't know when the biggest impact will be,

01:27 - 31.079 but I think we all need to get ready for a job transitioning.

01:27 - 34.515 Yeah, I agree that there's going to be some change.

01:27 - 37.986 And you know, technology has always brought changes, to

01:27 - 39.921 to how we handle things.

01:27 - 43.424 I appreciate that you all are thinking about these issues.

01:27 - 46.794 And, I would really appreciate the opportunity to work more

01:27 - 49.530 with the Department of Labor and developing policy.

01:27 - 52.800 That makes sense, because I have real concerns as a

01:27 - 56.838 as a father and as a legislator, as a representative for an area,

01:27 - 01.309 that, we're not going to be prepared for these jobs.

01:28 - 02.977 I want to make sure that that our kids are.

01:28 - 04.712 So thank you for your testimony today.

01:28 - 07.615 We welcome the collaboration. Thank you so much.

01:28 - 09.617 Thank you.

01:28 - 10.351 Thank you, gentlemen.

01:28 - 16.224 Representative Curry, thank you, chairman and hello, Secretary Walker.

01:28 - 17.191 And to your staff.

01:28 - 19.661 Thank you for being here today.

01:28 - 24.499 My question is, around the family Leave Act.

01:28 - 27.502 I know you heard some of that today.

01:28 - 31.639 About 4 million workers, according to our statistics

01:28 - 35.510 in Pennsylvania, don't have access to paid leave

01:28 - 39.080 through their employer and lose between

01:28 - 43.318 10 to 12,000 out of their pockets

01:28 - 46.921 whenever they would need to take this paid leave,

01:28 - 50.091 which is the money left out of the economy.

01:28 - 53.461 I would like to know if you could highlight for us

01:28 - 56.731 some of the financial impacts that you've seen,

01:28 - 59.901 as Secretary of Labor and Industry,

01:28 - 05.406 and also if the administration themselves supports guaranteeing

01:29 - 08.409 every working Pennsylvania has access

01:29 - 11.779 to paid family and medical leave.

01:29 - 16.384 So we'd be happy to talk with you about legislation for paid family leave.

01:29 - 19.620 But as you point out, what it does is sometimes it forces people

01:29 - 22.724 out of the workforce, which is bad for businesses across Pennsylvania.

01:29 - 25.526 And it certainly can be a challenge for families.

01:29 - 27.829 And that, you know, it's not good for families

01:29 - 29.897 when they when they lose income for a period of time.

01:29 - 32.266 So we're happy to have these conversations with you.

01:29 - 33.835 That's great.

01:29 - 37.338 I actually also want to talk to you about,

01:29 - 41.342 our college students who are graduating

01:29 - 44.912 and what the actual, goal

01:29 - 47.882 and strategy is for,

01:29 - 51.386 the state to be able to hold,

01:29 - 55.189 these graduates in place here in Pennsylvania.

01:29 - 58.893 I know I have, two college graduates,

01:29 - 01.929 one well, not two, one and one in May.

01:30 - 05.767 So I'm going to already count it, but,

01:30 - 08.569 both of them are going to be outside of the state

01:30 - 13.474 and so I have hope for the for the youngest one that still has some time.

01:30 - 17.512 But what is your strategy and what do you feel like?

01:30 - 22.283 We can do to continue to have our students stay in place?

01:30 - 24.485 I did I just want to say I did.

01:30 - 27.755 I came here from Baltimore to Saint Joe's, and I stayed.

01:30 - 29.724 Well, we appreciate that.

01:30 - 30.892 Now, these are great questions.

01:30 - 33.060 And these are questions that are being considered

01:30 - 34.862 by the State Board of Higher Education right now.

01:30 - 36.731 I'm a member that,

01:30 - 40.134 how do we keep Pennsylvania college graduates in Pennsylvania?

01:30 - 42.970 And one of the ways I think that we really need to do that,

01:30 - 45.473 and we can be really intentional, is to make sure

01:30 - 49.777 that we are aligning our curriculum with jobs that exist in our communities,

01:30 - 52.113 and then make sure that we're working with those employers

01:30 - 55.683 to make sure that we're getting people into internships and externships and

01:30 - 58.219 be able to, you know, if you have an internship

01:30 - 59.921 and you've enjoyed the time with the employer

01:30 - 03.057 and the employers enjoyed the worker, that we can keep them in Pennsylvania.

01:31 - 04.325 So those kinds of work

01:31 - 08.296 based opportunities, I think are really kind of obvious solutions,

01:31 - 11.666 but ones that we don't really focus on as much as I think we ought to,

01:31 - 13.801 and we should do more of that going forward.

01:31 - 16.504 How how closely involved does the department

01:31 - 20.475 get with helping with these externships and internships

01:31 - 22.977 as far as funding?

01:31 - 24.946 Yeah, I like the funding part.

01:31 - 28.749 And just helping, you know, the universities and employers

01:31 - 31.986 to be able to get the talent that's here.

01:31 - 32.587 Right.

01:31 - 35.690 So we wouldn't be funding the secondary institutions per se.

01:31 - 38.726 But there are many different apprenticeship programs that involve

01:31 - 40.995 some of our community colleges across the state.

01:31 - 44.599 We have schools to work, programs that have dual enrollment college credits.

01:31 - 47.602 So we're, you know, supporting from that perspective.

01:31 - 49.837 But again, sitting on the state board of Higher Education,

01:31 - 54.642 which is really making workforce a key component of its plan going forward

01:31 - 58.179 and making sure that we're tying curriculum and jobs at the college level.

01:31 - 01.749 I think, is really how we make sure that we keep people in Pennsylvania

01:32 - 04.685 and meet the needs of Pennsylvania employers. That's awesome.

01:32 - 07.021 And so I'm just going to leave with this plug.

01:32 - 10.057 Delaware County community College has just built a beautiful,

01:32 - 12.026 institution

01:32 - 15.596 right on the edge of my district and representative boys.

01:32 - 19.433 And we're so excited because it is solely focused on workforce development.

01:32 - 24.272 So we look forward to getting that talent out and being in Pennsylvania.

01:32 - 26.073 Thank you for your time today.

01:32 - 27.708 Thank you. Chairman.

01:32 - 28.276 Thanks, Gina.

01:32 - 31.279 Lady chairman James.

01:32 - 39.220 Thank you, Chairman Harris.

01:32 - 42.223 I thought Steve was going next.

01:32 - 43.891 Madam Secretary,

01:32 - 46.894 panel members, thank you all very much for being here.

01:32 - 51.599 I'm going to start with a question, which I hope will get you thinking

01:32 - 55.603 about something that, believe it or not, hasn't come up yet today.

01:32 - 59.707 And, it does have an impact

01:32 - 02.910 on my area in Venango County in western Pennsylvania.

01:33 - 06.180 And that's, apprenticeship ratios. Today.

01:33 - 09.183 I want to ask you about

01:33 - 11.185 regulatory barriers to workforce

01:33 - 14.188 development opportunities in Pennsylvania.

01:33 - 17.024 Pennsylvania's apprenticeship regulations

01:33 - 20.161 have a standard rule for non joined apprentice

01:33 - 25.600 programs of approximately four journeyman to one apprentice.

01:33 - 26.968 That is

01:33 - 31.138 relatively a high amount of supervisor capacity

01:33 - 34.442 used elsewhere only in more dangerous

01:33 - 38.012 industries. Stakeholders

01:33 - 42.149 there have complained that exceptions to this rule are rarely granted.

01:33 - 46.454 Currently, the average age, according to Google.

01:33 - 49.457 So it must be true, of the,

01:33 - 53.127 skilled tradesmen is about 55 years old.

01:33 - 56.964 And as a result, the, the retirements

01:33 - 01.469 now are greater than the entrance into these various capacities.

01:34 - 05.873 So can you give us an update from your office to,

01:34 - 10.411 on your efforts to engage stockholder,

01:34 - 13.948 stakeholders and legislators on how to modernize

01:34 - 18.019 the apprentice regulations, especially the antiquated,

01:34 - 21.489 current ratio requirement.

01:34 - 25.593 And can you give your thoughts on which direction we should take?

01:34 - 29.830 Should we look to the federal government for some help on that

01:34 - 33.000 or other states such as Maryland, as a model?

01:34 - 35.269 So thank you for the question.

01:34 - 36.437 We're always happy to engage

01:34 - 40.374 with, legislators on topics of interest to working people.

01:34 - 43.678 As far as the apprenticeship ratios, our apprenticeship

01:34 - 47.348 and training council meets every month, and here is any exception.

01:34 - 50.551 So if somebody thinks that the ratios are not going to work

01:34 - 53.521 for the apprenticeship program, that they want to have registered,

01:34 - 57.158 they can certainly go before the council to get an exemption

01:34 - 58.826 or if they are already registered

01:34 - 01.996 and are looking to to change that, they can certainly ask the council.

01:35 - 06.267 Council will hear that every month, so appropriate exemptions can be granted.

01:35 - 09.270 That way.

01:35 - 12.673 The fact that they are rarely granted.

01:35 - 15.676 Is there something we can do to improve on that?

01:35 - 20.281 It's in other words, we're going to run out of skilled tradesmen.

01:35 - 22.983 And that's actually happening in Venango County.

01:35 - 24.819 Try to find a plumber. Good luck.

01:35 - 28.089 That's my concern.

01:35 - 31.092 And I, I guess what my takeaway.

01:35 - 35.029 What I hope your takeaway is that we begin to think about that

01:35 - 39.767 and perhaps consider some changes instead of one size fits all.

01:35 - 42.203 I do have another question.

01:35 - 44.839 Greenlights still on.

01:35 - 46.474 This has been touched upon already.

01:35 - 50.611 Unemployment compensation performance benchmarks.

01:35 - 53.714 In the current fiscal year budget, of course,

01:35 - 57.752 we've established that the the ask is 115 million.

01:35 - 01.956 That's about 80% higher than four years ago.

01:36 - 04.959 So that's a very significant increase.

01:36 - 09.630 In in lieu or and in the event that we,

01:36 - 14.802 is looked upon favorably, let's put it that way.

01:36 - 18.672 I want to ask about, progress in meeting federal benchmarks.

01:36 - 22.510 Last year we came up a little short

01:36 - 27.248 on five of the six benchmarks, that the the federal government has put upon us.

01:36 - 31.619 So how do you think, our U.

01:36 - 34.321 C program is rated right now?

01:36 - 37.291 Are we, compliant in compliance?

01:36 - 40.161 And are you meeting all the federal target levels?

01:36 - 42.096 If not,

01:36 - 45.099 can what can we expect to,

01:36 - 48.102 be seeing some improvement in this area?

01:36 - 50.504 Thank you, thank you. That's a great question.

01:36 - 52.072 And I'll have the deputy secretary

01:36 - 55.309 fill in on exactly each of those benchmark benchmarks where we are.

01:36 - 59.580 But the reason I wanted to address also the increase in the funding amount

01:36 - 00.815 that we're looking for,

01:37 - 04.852 federal government decreased our allotment last year by $7.7 million.

01:37 - 08.656 So we're we're trying to have the, personnel improvements

01:37 - 11.659 that everybody seems to like and want,

01:37 - 15.329 but still work with an ever declining federal government budget.

01:37 - 17.631 So that's that was the reason for the increase.

01:37 - 19.767 But I have a deputy secretary, Mack, as well.

01:37 - 21.836 I walk you through the benchmarks.

01:37 - 24.271 So thank you for the question, representative.

01:37 - 27.741 When you look at what I consider to be

01:37 - 31.879 two of the most important benchmarks, which are the first pay timeliness

01:37 - 35.316 and the non 121 day timeliness in 2024,

01:37 - 38.319 Pennsylvania was at 65.4%,

01:37 - 41.522 in 2025, we were at 76.9%

01:37 - 44.859 and we were just above the national average in that regard.

01:37 - 47.895 And then with the nine month, 21 days

01:37 - 51.932 timeliness in 2024, we were at 45.1%.

01:37 - 54.902 And in 2025, 62.7%.

01:37 - 59.440 Those benchmarks represent to me the most important ones

01:37 - 02.610 because it's how quickly a claimant gets paid, and those are

01:38 - 05.646 the ones that we will always work to improve upon.

01:38 - 09.850 And we do that by ensuring that the performance standards

01:38 - 12.853 that we've established for our examiners are met.

01:38 - 18.192 When they are not met, we bring them into the office, they get additional training.

01:38 - 22.630 We continue to train our staff throughout the year on pain points

01:38 - 26.800 that we discover through interaction with stakeholders, through

01:38 - 29.937 looking at our BTU scores

01:38 - 36.343 and given where we were three years ago and where we are now,

01:38 - 40.114 I am confident that we are on an upward trajectory

01:38 - 43.183 and I hope to continue that.

01:38 - 47.621 And at the end of the day, it really is people who make the difference.

01:38 - 51.325 It's being able to continually staff up,

01:38 - 54.461 promote people to examiners

01:38 - 58.232 who can get decisions out quickly and then backfill

01:38 - 02.336 the interview or positions because examiners come from interviewers.

01:39 - 06.941 So every time we promote a class of examiners, which we do

01:39 - 11.946 as quickly as we can to ensure that the timeliness benchmarks are met,

01:39 - 14.682 we need to backfill that interview or position,

01:39 - 18.986 but we will continue working to achieve the 87%

01:39 - 22.790 that the federal government establishes, because at the end of the day, it's

01:39 - 25.859 real people at the end of those benchmarks, it's how quickly is

01:39 - 29.029 someone getting their unemployment compensation payment?

01:39 - 31.999 It sounds like the trend is a good one.

01:39 - 34.601 So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:39 - 37.805 I thank the gentleman, Representative Morgan.

01:39 - 39.106 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:39 - 39.606 I appreciate it.

01:39 - 42.743 And, Secretary, thank you so much for your, for being here

01:39 - 45.813 with us today and your entire team for your preparation as well.

01:39 - 50.050 I have a question with regard to a couple scenarios

01:39 - 53.320 that always come up in our districts across, our Commonwealth.

01:39 - 57.758 And when grant money is given out for construction projects,

01:39 - 01.562 our cap funding and the like,

01:40 - 04.331 we are asked to provide

01:40 - 07.634 prevailing wage for those workers that work on those projects.

01:40 - 11.138 Can you explain to me the process for when a construction

01:40 - 14.141 project in a district or in a community is chosen?

01:40 - 19.580 How how do we verify and make sure that those prevailing wage dollars are going,

01:40 - 22.950 and making sure that that particular rate for work

01:40 - 26.387 is going to those individuals that are bidding on those contracts

01:40 - 28.722 and making sure that they're doing the job. Right, right.

01:40 - 32.693 So our our office, obviously we're not releasing the grants

01:40 - 36.030 and the Cap grants, but we oversee prevailing wage.

01:40 - 40.634 So we have the ability to go into work sites, check payroll records,

01:40 - 44.405 review certified records, and employers certify that they're paying

01:40 - 48.175 appropriate wages to the people identified in exchange for

01:40 - 50.177 for being reimbursed for those wages.

01:40 - 51.211 So we go on to work.

01:40 - 54.014 Sites should be able to run the numbers to make sure the number of workers,

01:40 - 56.150 actually, or the people on payroll, those kinds of things.

01:40 - 01.388 So, you know, we have limited resources to do that, but we are doing,

01:41 - 05.492 you know, we are doing this work every day in every county across Pennsylvania.

01:41 - 09.363 And when you find a discrepancy in that, what is the process

01:41 - 10.831 from that point forward?

01:41 - 13.567 Well, ultimately, you know, if workers are owed money,

01:41 - 16.904 we get workers paid and we find and sanction employers.

01:41 - 19.540 And if employers continue to violate the law,

01:41 - 22.643 they could find themselves debarred from further and further projects.

01:41 - 25.913 And looking at some of the statistics that we have in front of us,

01:41 - 29.316 for prevailing wage, the complaints that were filed actually

01:41 - 32.886 went up a little bit from 2020 to 2025,

01:41 - 35.489 from the to the end of 2025,

01:41 - 38.692 but it kind of has plateaued during that middle, middle section.

01:41 - 44.832 As far as investigators working, where is your compliment with investigators?

01:41 - 47.401 And do you have enough of them to actually,

01:41 - 49.503 answer to the complaints that are being filed?

01:41 - 51.171 So we can always use more resources?

01:41 - 54.241 And right now we have, we have several open positions.

01:41 - 59.179 We are onboarding new people now and doing training across the state.

01:41 - 02.516 We want to make sure that we are being as sort of lean and mean as we can be.

01:42 - 06.286 But we certainly could use more resources in that space.

01:42 - 09.289 It's just a continuing problem.

01:42 - 13.560 And the more money that's out there to do infrastructure development,

01:42 - 16.930 the more, we're going to be seeing these kinds of violations.

01:42 - 18.999 I appreciate that.

01:42 - 20.501 One other part that I wanted to

01:42 - 24.204 mention was the construction workers misclassification.

01:42 - 29.543 Those numbers have seemed to go up during that same time frame from 2020 to 2025.

01:42 - 35.149 Are you seeing that the misclassifications taking over and,

01:42 - 38.886 the prevailing wage may not be being paid because of the misclassification?

01:42 - 41.655 What are those trends that you're seeing within within this?

01:42 - 44.525 So it's interesting complaints are going up in both buckets.

01:42 - 49.796 So the prevailing whether or not people are paying prevailing wage, is, you know,

01:42 - 52.833 a different lot than the construction workplace misclassification.

01:42 - 58.505 I don't see a, I can have Deputy Secretary Halleck weigh in, but there doesn't

01:42 - 03.810 seem to be a ton of misclassifying workers in the prevailing wage space, per se.

01:43 - 08.348 It's more on the on the work sites where people aren't, submitting certified

01:43 - 11.685 payrolls and things like that, where we see the vast majority of those cases.

01:43 - 12.052 All right.

01:43 - 12.719 Thank you for that.

01:43 - 16.557 And my final question for you, with regard to the Schools to Work program,

01:43 - 18.258 I'm really pleased to see that

01:43 - 22.062 the governor is proposing to double that program funding to $7 million.

01:43 - 25.699 But I want to ask if you could talk about the impact that the program has had.

01:43 - 30.437 And also, what are some of the pathways that this funding, has, supported?

01:43 - 31.171 Yeah.

01:43 - 33.173 So about 2300 students,

01:43 - 36.176 I think have come successfully out of schools to work programs now.

01:43 - 40.080 And, you know, these these young people who have, graduated from these programs

01:43 - 41.848 are student teaching now.

01:43 - 43.917 They are working as EMTs.

01:43 - 47.421 They are doing all sorts of things in the work in, in their communities,

01:43 - 50.857 that were supported because they got a preliminary

01:43 - 54.094 look at what their career would be like when they were in high school.

01:43 - 55.529 And it really makes sure,

01:43 - 59.032 again, we've heard questions about how do we keep our people in Pennsylvania.

01:43 - 02.135 I think a lot of families would like to keep their kids in their communities,

01:44 - 05.539 and ways to do that is to have a robust liberal schools

01:44 - 09.476 to work program, and this has been just a proven success.

01:44 - 13.614 Unfortunately, we can only award grants to a fraction of the

01:44 - 16.149 of the really exciting programs out there.

01:44 - 19.753 Like I said, right now, our programs only touch about three quarters of the state.

01:44 - 23.056 I'd like to see this program in every part of the state,

01:44 - 25.125 in every one of our 67 counties.

01:44 - 27.427 Thank you so much. I see my time is expiring.

01:44 - 29.296 So I just want to thank you for your work in this.

01:44 - 32.432 I do want to thank you for your work, for working families across Pennsylvania.

01:44 - 35.202 Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank the gentleman.

01:44 - 40.140 Representative, chairman Susie, do you have any kind of a. Yes.

01:44 - 41.808 Thank you, Chairman Harris.

01:44 - 44.811 Again, thank you all for being here.

01:44 - 47.547 Talking about data centers,

01:44 - 50.851 workforce investment, the opportunities, that

01:44 - 54.187 will come to Pennsylvania now that we have collectively,

01:44 - 57.924 ended the regional greenhouse Gas Initiative for Pennsylvania.

01:44 - 02.429 I have some concerns with the workforce readiness,

01:45 - 07.000 and I and I appreciate, you know, I think there was, good dialog

01:45 - 10.570 this morning on investing in career and tech education.

01:45 - 14.441 But I really see the need,

01:45 - 18.712 exponentially increasing here dramatically in the next couple of years.

01:45 - 22.049 And so I'm just looking for maybe more of your thoughts

01:45 - 24.351 on what we need to do to be prepared.

01:45 - 27.054 Are we doing enough to be prepared?

01:45 - 29.923 Particularly related to the building trades?

01:45 - 31.258 I really appreciate that.

01:45 - 34.027 And particularly with respect to the data center space, I think you're right.

01:45 - 37.431 I think we just have a huge workforce need that's in front of us.

01:45 - 38.699 And at the department.

01:45 - 41.668 We want to really focus on making sure that we are funding workforce

01:45 - 45.172 opportunities, both with respect to data for data center

01:45 - 48.675 infrastructure as well as broadband expansion and IT in general.

01:45 - 52.846 So we just recently, using our schools to work,

01:45 - 55.215 I'm sorry, using our reemployment

01:45 - 58.251 fund funds, we just issued a $2 million grant,

01:45 - 02.222 notice of grant availability for northeastern Pennsylvania

01:46 - 05.225 to really focus on sort of the,

01:46 - 07.494 the, construction work

01:46 - 11.264 that would go into the infrastructure of the data center that's anticipated.

01:46 - 14.868 That's being worked on right now in that area across the state.

01:46 - 16.503 We are seeing these kinds of needs.

01:46 - 20.340 We want to continue to be able to fund workforce grants in that space,

01:46 - 22.509 both in terms of the building and construction trades,

01:46 - 25.112 to make sure that we're getting that infrastructure built.

01:46 - 29.149 But then we want to make sure that we have people trained to do maintenance work

01:46 - 32.819 and do the, energy, the electrical work that continues to go on.

01:46 - 36.523 So we really are trying to have a long term as well as a short term

01:46 - 38.492 perspective as we're looking at that.

01:46 - 42.529 And certainly this, you know, continuing funding with respect

01:46 - 45.599 to apprenticeship dollars will really help us in that regard.

01:46 - 48.268 And do you work closely with the Department of Education

01:46 - 49.903 and the Department of Community Economic Development

01:46 - 52.906 to make sure everything is aligning and moving in the right directions?

01:46 - 56.276 We do, and particularly in that that sort of data center space.

01:46 - 58.111 There are I think there are weekly meetings

01:46 - 59.613 at this point, weekly meetings

01:46 - 04.418 with the Office of Transformation opportunity with dcd PD.

01:47 - 05.952 We are working closely.

01:47 - 08.855 We want to make sure that we are catching everything right.

01:47 - 10.424 We don't want to leave any gaps.

01:47 - 12.726 We also don't want to do the same work twice.

01:47 - 15.662 So being collaborative and we're really trying to do this

01:47 - 19.399 in all aspects of workforce, it's really important that if we're issuing

01:47 - 22.869 a grant in the agriculture that we're doing that in conjunction with,

01:47 - 25.872 you know, the data points we're getting from our require

01:47 - 30.243 that we make sure that we're supporting the DCD investments.

01:47 - 32.813 We're working with Secretary Redding in his team

01:47 - 35.515 to make sure that we're actually identifying the real problem

01:47 - 38.518 and putting dollars where we know we're going to get success.

01:47 - 38.952 Okay.

01:47 - 40.554 And then related to broadband,

01:47 - 43.323 I know we've been talking about this for some time now, and maybe

01:47 - 45.926 maybe you don't have the answer, but is there a timeline

01:47 - 48.929 for when we're actually going to fill all the gaps that have been mentioned?

01:47 - 51.164 That is a great question. I think.

01:47 - 54.935 I think that Secretary Saggar testified that by 2030,

01:47 - 55.902 that was all going to be built.

01:47 - 59.806 I maybe if I'm incorrect, I that was my best recollection.

01:48 - 01.074 Okay.

01:48 - 04.711 And then, lastly, just as another follow of the, the,

01:48 - 05.879 the fraud numbers

01:48 - 08.882 that the deputy secretary outlined, could you provide those to us,

01:48 - 11.117 and maybe compare,

01:48 - 12.152 you know, what it was like,

01:48 - 15.021 because as you said, the Covid stuff is sort of an anomaly, right?

01:48 - 17.190 So can we look at maybe before

01:48 - 20.494 and after and where we are with those, those fraud numbers and trends?

01:48 - 23.230 It's gotten much, much better.

01:48 - 25.465 But I agree and we appreciate that.

01:48 - 26.299 So all right.

01:48 - 29.069 Thank you all. Thank you chairman. Thank the gentleman.

01:48 - 32.672 And thank the secretary and the Department of Labor.

01:48 - 35.008 We thank you all for being here with us,

01:48 - 39.145 this afternoon for this budget hearing.

01:48 - 42.983 I also thank you for your flexibility as we had to move around times.

01:48 - 46.453 We are going to recess,

01:48 - 50.190 and we'll be back here at 1:00.

01:48 - 51.892 Oh, no.

01:48 - 53.326 It's almost 1:00.

01:48 - 56.329 2:00.

01:48 - 58.965 We'll be back at 2:00.

01:48 - 03.036 And we'll have the Department of Education here with us this afternoon.

01:49 - 06.406 So we'll see everybody back here at 2:00.

01:49 - 07.307 Thank you so much, Mr.

01:49 - 10.310 Chairman.

01:49 - 13.313 I can remember thinking.

01:49 - 36.836 In. This.