Senators abandon plan to crimp labor commissioner authority
GDOL commissioner Mark Butler responds to calls for an investigation into the unemployment claims process.
ATLANTA - State senators abandoned a plan Friday to strip Georgia’s elected labor commissioner of much of his authority, with the proposal’s sponsor saying he believed Republican Mark Butler had received the message that lawmakers want faster action on complaints about delayed and denied jobless benefits.
"We went that far. We tabled it. We’ll hold it. Hopefully we can get some things to move together," said Sen Marty Harbin, the Tyrone Republican who sponsored Senate Bill 156, saying he wound not further pursue the bill "We’d like to help him, that’s the thing about it."
The measure, which technically remains alive, would create a chief labor officer who would be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. The chief labor officer, who would serve until 2023, would be charged with improving "the reliability and timeliness" of unemployment benefit awards and also providing financial information to the state auditor.
The effort had won broad bipartisan support from lawmakers who say Butler has done too little to address a backlog of unemployment claims even as lawmakers have been inundated by complaints from constituents who say they’ve been wrongly denied jobless benefits.
But some lawmakers opposed the measure because it intruded on the responsibilities of an office created under the state constitution, with no clear way to address disputes between Butler and a chief labor officer.
"I cannot support any measure that goes to push against the responsibilities, the duties and the oath taken by a statewide elected official," said Sen. Randy Robertson, a Republican from Cataula. "We have ways of changing how the Department of Labor is run, and we do that every fourth November in an election."
Nevertheless, Robertson stated "that department has failed," saying he wanted to send Butler a "strong message" that lawmakers are unhappy.
Harbin did not indicate that he’s heard any new response from Butler.
A spokesperson for Butler did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He earlier had reacted angrily to the bill, saying his department has hired 500 people since the pandemic began and that lawmakers don’t understand how complicated the work is, saying their earlier offers of help weren’t useful and calling them "backstabbers."
Anger with Butler has been building among Democrats and Republicans for months, with Democratic House members holding a series of news conferences during the summer to protest his performance. Lawmakers got so many calls that they’ve been sending complaints electronically to the department for examination.
A former lawmaker, Butler said his department has examined cases of people who have called lawmakers to complain, but says many of them are ineligible for benefits.
Butler denies that his office is underperforming. His department said it has paid benefits to more than 1.4 million weekly claims since last March. The department said it was working through a backlog of benefit eligibility decisions and appeals at a rate of 1,500 claims a day, but Butler said 77% of appeals are being determined as ineligible.
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