House Subcommitte Supports Bill to Fight Identity Theft in Florida Reemployment Program

The House Economic Development and Tourism subcommittee today unanimously approved HB 1017, a bill aimed to fight fraud in Florida’s Reemployment Assistance program.

Cissy Proctor, just a month on the job as executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity, told the subcommittee, “This measure will better protect Florida’s reemployment assistance system from fraudulent criminal activity." She said the measures in the bill will improve DEO’s detection system and help bring justice to criminals who are using stolen information to collect reemployment benefits. 

"At DEO," Proctor said, "we are identifying and eliminating fraudulent unemployment claims every day, protecting millions of dollars of taxpayer money from criminals trying to steal benefits from those who need assistance. We value the House’s commitment to fighting fraud in the state’s public benefits systems ..."

The legislation, titled the DEO Cybercrime Prevention Act, includes additional resources for DEO and legal authorizations to prevent and fight public benefits fraud in Florida, including:

• Create a criminal investigations unit to focus on data analytics, utilize cutting-edge technology to investigate and build cases, and coordinate with local and federal law enforcement in a multi-faceted approach to fighting criminals who use identity theft to fraudulently file for reemployment assistance.
• Allow access to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle’s DAVID System for photo identification from the driver’s license database to validate reemployment assistance claims.
• Increase penalties for those who fraudulently apply for benefits.
• Continue implementation of the highly successful FIRRE (Fraud Initiative and Rules Rating Engine) system. Since initial implementation in 2014, FIRRE has successfully detected more than 146,000 fraudulent claims and prevented payment of $603 million in potential fraudulent claims.