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SB-58 Personal information: social security numbers: state agencies: Employment Development Department: fraud prevention.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 06/21/2021 09:00 PM
SB58:v96#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  June 21, 2021
Amended  IN  Senate  April 27, 2021
Amended  IN  Senate  March 15, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 58

Introduced by Senators Wilk and Hurtado
(Coauthors: Senators Bates, Borgeas, Caballero, Dahle, Dodd, Glazer, Grove, Hueso, Jones, Melendez, Newman, Nielsen, Ochoa Bogh, and Roth)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Lackey, Patterson, Seyarto, and Valladares)

December 07, 2020

An act to amend Section 11019.7 of the Government Code, and to add Section 341 to the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to state government, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 58, as amended, Wilk. Personal information: social security numbers: state agencies: Employment Development Department: fraud prevention.
Existing law prohibits a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual that contains personal information about that individual, including, but not limited to, the individual’s social security number, telephone number, driver’s license number, or credit card account number, unless that personal information is contained within sealed correspondence and cannot be viewed from the outside of that sealed correspondence. Existing law, commencing on or before January 1, 2023, prohibits a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail that contains an individual’s social security number unless the number is truncated to its last 4 digits or in specified circumstances.
This bill would instead require, as soon as feasible, but not later than January 1, 2023, a state agency to stop sending any outgoing United States mail that contains an individual’s social security number unless the number is truncated to its last 4 digits or in specified circumstances. The bill, commencing on or before October 1, 2021, would prohibit, with exceptions, the Employment Development Department from sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual containing the individual’s social security number, unless that social security number is replaced with a modified unique identifier or the number is truncated to its last 4 digits.
Existing law creates, in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Employment Development Department, which is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction with respect to job creation activities. Existing law requires the Director of Employment Development to periodically review policies and practices used to determine eligibility for and the amount of benefits in the unemployment insurance program to identify those policies and practices doing certain things, including, but not limited to, providing little or no value in identifying or preventing fraud or abuse in the unemployment insurance program.
This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2022, to identify the fraud prevention efforts it can adjust to improve effectiveness during periods of high demand for benefits. The bill would also require the department, on or before January 1, 2022, using existing resources, to designate a single unit responsible for coordinating fraud prevention and align the unit’s duties with best practices for detecting and preventing fraud.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 11019.7 of the Government Code is amended to read:

11019.7.
 (a) A state agency shall not send any outgoing United States mail to an individual that contains personal information about that individual, including, but not limited to, the individual’s social security number, telephone number, driver’s license number, or credit card account number, unless that personal information is contained within sealed correspondence and cannot be viewed from the outside of that sealed correspondence.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding any other law, commencing on or before as soon as feasible, but not later than January 1, 2023, a state agency shall not send stop sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual that contains the individual’s social security number unless the number is truncated to its last four digits, except in the following circumstances:
(A) Federal law requires inclusion of the social security number.
(B) The documents are mailed to a current or prospective state employee.
(C) An individual erroneously mailed a document containing a social security number to a state agency, and that state agency is returning the original document by certified or registered United States mail.
(D) The Controller is returning documents to an individual previously submitted by the individual pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 1500) of Title 10 of Part 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
(E) The document is sent in response to a valid request for access to personal information, pursuant to Section 1798.34 of the Civil Code.
(2) (A) On or before September 1, 2021, each state agency that mails an individual’s full or truncated part of a social security number to that individual, other than as permitted by paragraph (1), shall report to the Legislature regarding when and why it does so.
(B) A state agency that, in its own estimation, is unable to comply with the requirements of paragraph (1) of this subdivision shall submit an annual corrective action plan to the Legislature until it is in compliance with that paragraph.
(C) A report required by subparagraph (A) of this paragraph or corrective action plan required by subparagraph (B) of this paragraph and communications made in connection with these documents that bear on what mailings do and do not contain an individual’s social security number, are confidential and shall not be disclosed to the public pursuant to any state law, including, but not limited to, the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code).
(3) (A) The requirement for submitting a report imposed under subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2) is inoperative on January 1, 2024, pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.
(B) A report to be submitted pursuant to subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (2) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(c) (1) Notwithstanding subdivisions (a) and (b), commencing on or before October 1, 2021, the Employment Development Department shall not send any outgoing United States mail to an individual containing the individual’s social security number, unless that social security number is replaced with a modified unique identifier or the number is truncated to its last four digits.
(2) This subdivision does not apply when the Employment Development Department is returning an individual’s own documents or under one of the circumstances specified in subparagraphs (A) to (E), inclusive, of paragraph (1) of subdivision (b), as applicable.
(d) “Outgoing United States mail” for the purposes of this section includes correspondence sent via a common carrier, including, but not limited to, a package express service and a courier service.
(e) Notwithstanding subdivision (a) of Section 11000, “state agency” includes the California State University.

SEC. 2.

 Section 341 is added to the Unemployment Insurance Code, to read:

341.
 (a) On or before January 1, 2022, the department shall identify the fraud prevention efforts it can adjust to improve effectiveness during periods of high demand for benefits.
(b) On or before January 1, 2022, the department, using existing resources, shall designate a single unit responsible for coordinating fraud prevention and align the unit’s duties with best practices for detecting and preventing fraud.

SEC. 3.

 This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to detect and prevent fraud and protect and better safeguard the identities of millions of unemployment insurance claimants served by the Employment Development Department Californians as quickly as possible, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.