GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2019

SESSION LAW 2020-53

HOUSE BILL 1229

AN ACT appropriating funds to the division of employment security to strengthen unemployment insurance program integrity during the coronavirus pandemic and preventing certain payments to precinct officials from reducing unemployment insurance benefits.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a)  The State Controller shall transfer the sum of two million dollars ($2,000,000) for the 2019‑2020 fiscal year from the Coronavirus Relief Reserve created in Section 2.1 of S.L. 2020‑4 to the General Fund, Coronavirus Relief Fund, established in Section 2.2 of that act.

SECTION 1.(b)  There is appropriated from the Coronavirus Relief Fund to the Department of Commerce, Division of Employment Security (DES), the sum of two million dollars ($2,000,000) for the 2019‑2020 fiscal year to be used to contract and utilize the subject matter expertise and technical infrastructure available through existing Government Data Analytics Center (GDAC) public‑private partnerships, as follows:

(1)        To enhance existing unemployment insurance (UI) fraud and compliance alerting capability to prevent and detect cybersecurity attacks on DES information technology assets and resources during the pandemic.

(2)        To provide DES with COVID‑19 related program fraud detection analytics and information reporting.

(3)        To provide pandemic UI assistance documentation analysis.

(4)        To enhance economic modeling for underground economy analysis with COVID‑19 claims.

SECTION 1.(c)  All contractual and interagency agreements necessary to implement this section shall be executed within 30 days of this act becoming law. These funds shall be expended only as allowed under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, P.L. 116‑136. The requirements and limitations set forth in Part I of S.L. 2020‑4 shall apply to the funds appropriated by this section. The Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) shall include the funds transferred and appropriated under this section in the report required under Section 1.7 of S.L. 2020‑4, and DES shall provide OSBM with the information deemed necessary by OSBM to accomplish this reporting requirement.

SECTION 2.  The provisions of the State Budget Act, Chapter 143C of the General Statutes, are reenacted and shall remain in full force and effect and are incorporated in this act by reference.

SECTION 3.  Except where expressly repealed or amended by this act, the provisions of any other legislation enacted during the 2019 Regular Session of the General Assembly expressly appropriating funds to an agency, a department, or an institution covered under this act shall remain in effect.

SECTION 4.  This act is effective when it becomes law.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 19^th day of June, 2020.

                                                                    s/  Philip E. Berger

                                                                         President Pro Tempore of the Senate

                                                                    s/  David R. Lewis

                                                                         Presiding Officer of the House of Representatives

                                                                    s/  Roy Cooper

                                                                         Governor

Approved 12:18 p.m. this 30^th day of June, 2020