Posts tagged House Ways and Means Committee
State employees frustrated that raises are tied up in Legislature
October 24, 2023 // The Local 509 bargaining units -- featuring employees at the Department of Children and Families, Department of Transitional Assistance, Department of Developmental Services, Department of Mental Health, and other agencies -- reached a contract deal in April that was ratified in May, for raises that would have been retroactive to January. The pending list of bargaining agreements before the Legislature has risen to 82, and while some are contracts that would take effect in the future, like the State Police Association of Massachusetts, others are historical, like an agreement for faculty and professional staff at the state's 15 community college campuses that deals with raises due back to 2021. The 82 contracts are laid out in Gov. Maura Healey's $2.15 billion budget bill (H 4090) to close the books on fiscal 2023, which ended almost four months ago. The list also includes five agreements with MassDOT employees, 23 with University of Massachusetts personnel, nine with Registry of Deeds workers, 35 with employees of county sheriff's departments, and an agreement with National Association of Government Employees units that cover tens of thousands of employees across the executive branch.
Watchdogs say federal unemployment fraud likely topped $191 billion
February 9, 2023 // Michael Horowitz, chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told the House Ways and Means Committee that the fraud was not limited to U.S. residents. "One of the biggest challenges we have is following the fraud through overseas gang activity and fraudsters," Horowitz said. "The Secret Service has reported that they've seen that occur through entities in Nigeria, China, Russia. That will be our biggest challenge." U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Florida, asked for an estimate of how much that type of fraud cost U.S. taxpayers. Horowitz said no such estimate was available.