Excerpted from the Sacramento Bee
By David Lightman and Hannah Wiley
Bills approved before the Legislature ended its 2021 session could mean important changes, some now, some later. Newsom has until October 10 to sign the bills, and his office said Friday it “typically does not comment on pending legislation.”
[...]
Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach, said she’s confident “meaningful reforms” made their way through the Legislature this year.
Petrie-Norris cited her bill that would require the department to cross-check California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation incarceration records with unemployment claims. It would seek to avoid the kind of fraud that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars being paid out to inmates last year, mostly as part of the new federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. That program ended September 4.
Still, Petrie-Norris said more work is needed to address the “nitty gritty” details, like the department’s operational challenges and technical issues.