There is in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency the Employment Development Department, which is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction heretofore exercised by the State Department of Benefit Payments or the California Health and Human Services Agency with respect to job creation activities. The Employment Development Department shall be administered by an executive officer known as the Director of Employment Development who is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction heretofore exercised by the Director of Benefit Payments with respect to the following functions:

The Employment Development Department shall have the possession and control of all records, papers, offices, equipment, supplies, moneys, appropriations, land, and other property real or personal held for the benefit or use of the State Department of Benefit Payments in the performance of the duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction that are vested in the Employment Development Department by Section 301.

All officers and employees of the State Department of Benefit Payments who, on the operative date of the statute amending this section at the 1977 portion of the 1977–78 Regular Session of the Legislature, are serving in the state civil service, other than as temporary employees, and engaged in the performance of a function vested in the Employment Development Department by Section 301 shall be transferred to the Employment Development Department. The status, positions, and rights of such persons shall not be affected by the transfer and shall be retained by them as officers and employees of the Employment Development Department pursuant to the State Civil Service Act, except as to positions exempt from civil service.

The Director of Employment Development shall be appointed by the Governor, subject to the approval of the Senate, and shall serve as director at the pleasure of the Governor. The annual salary of the Director of Employment Development shall be as provided for by Chapter 6 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.

There shall be five deputy directors in the Employment Development Department who shall be appointed by the Governor subject to the approval of the Senate and shall hold office at the pleasure of the Governor. The salary of the deputy directors shall be fixed in accordance with law.

Whenever a reference to this division is made in this article it shall also include all other divisions of this code.

Regulations for the administration of the functions of the Employment Development Department under this code shall be adopted, amended, or repealed by the Director of Employment Development as provided in Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.

All regulations heretofore adopted by the Director of the Department of Human Resources Development shall remain in effect and shall be fully enforceable unless and until readopted, amended or repealed by the Director of Employment Development.

All regulations heretofore adopted by the Director of Benefit Payments pursuant to this code and in effect immediately preceding the operative date of the amendment of this section enacted by the Legislature during the 1977–78 Regular Session, shall remain in effect and shall be fully enforceable unless and until readopted, amended or repealed by the Director of Employment Development.

The Director of Employment Development may adopt, amend, or repeal such regulations as are reasonably necessary to enforce his functions under this code.

The department shall provide, upon the request of any person or entity, any or all of the department’s rules, regulations, guidelines, bulletins, manuals, standards of general application, or the departmental responsibilities under any state or federal law, along with any subscription service necessary to assure prompt receipt of additional amendments to any of the above materials. The department shall charge a fee to cover (1) the costs of reproducing the materials and (2) postage associated with a subscription service; however, one free copy of the materials shall be provided to each state legislator, upon request.

Any documents properly classified as confidential shall be exempt from the requirements of this section.

The Director of Employment Development or the Department of Employment Development may prescribe the extent, if any, to which any rule, regulation or interpretation issued or promulgated in accordance with the provisions of this code shall be applied without retroactive effect.

The Director of Employment Development shall appoint such assistants except personnel of the appeals division as he finds necessary for the administration of this division, subject to the provisions of the Government Code, and may delegate to any of the officers or employees of the department such powers and duties as he considers necessary for the proper administration of this division.

The Director of Employment Development and his authorized representatives in the enforcement of the division shall have all the powers of a head of a department as set forth in Article 2 (commencing with Section 11180) of Chapter 2, Part 1, Division 3, Title 2 of the Government Code. For the purpose of any investigation, hearing, or proceeding under this division, the Director of Employment Development may delegate his power in relation thereto to any deputy, or other person properly authorized in writing by him.

The appeals division within the department includes the appeals board and its clerical staff and assistants and the administrative law judges and their supervisors and clerical staff and assistants.

concerning its basic purposes, provisions, and operations. All standard information employee pamphlets concerning unemployment and disability insurance programs shall be printed in English and the

primary languages.

acquire language services, the department shall provide the individual with a return telephone or relay call in the individual’s language within a reasonable timeframe.

(A) Provide dedicated phone lines for unemployment insurance claims in the primary languages in an effort to provide consistent wait times across all phone lines and collect and review data on phone usage by limited English proficient individuals.

(B) Translate static, nonpersonalized documents containing unemployment insurance vital information into the primary and additional languages.

(C) If the

individual’s language is not among the primary or additional languages, then upon the individual’s request, provide the individual with translation or oral or signed interpretation of documents in their preferred language.

described in subdivision (g), the department shall display both of the following on its internet website organized and translated by language:

benefits.

cause an undue delay in receipt of services or benefits. If the department’s provision of language services unduly delays an individual’s receipt of services or benefits, the individual’s time to meet the department’s deadlines shall be extended for the period of time necessary to receive the language services.

The Director of Employment Development shall maintain a field investigating staff, whose function shall embrace investigation throughout the state of violations of this code, to the end that its provisions are more adequately and strictly enforced.

The Director of Employment Development shall comply with all applicable provisions of the Government Code relating to contracts, budgets and other fiscal matters, including Sections 13320 to 13324, inclusive, of that code, in the same manner and to the same extent as other state agencies, insofar as such provisions are not inconsistent with the provisions of the Social Security Act and the rules and regulations of the Secretary of Labor.

The Director of Employment Development shall make such reports in such form and containing such information as the Secretary of Labor may from time to time require, and shall comply with such provisions as the secretary may from time to time find necessary to assure the correctness and verification of such reports.

to the Legislature the results of the first review on or before July 1, 2015, and may submit subsequent reports thereafter. The report shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(ii) The amount of overpayments waived.

(iii) The amount repaid related to those overpayment notices.

(B) The reports shall encompass benefit payments made by the department from March 1, 2020, until January 12, 2021.

(C) The department shall publish the information required under this paragraph until the repayment period for all the notices has elapsed.

subparagraph (A) shall take into account the relative likelihood that it issued payments to ineligible claimants by considering historic overpayment trends, as well as the new or altered eligibility requirements the federal government adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. If necessary, the department shall either partner with another state agency or contract for assistance in performing the analysis in support of this assessment.

(ii) Federal expectations about the urgency of the deferred work.

(iii) Any deadlines by which the department may no longer be allowed to recoup inappropriately paid benefits.

insurance claims. The department shall plan its staffing around the likelihood of those scenarios, including having a contingency plan for less likely scenarios that would have a significant impact on its workload.

feature of its claims processing.

benefit Californians.

system that allow callers to request a callback from an agent instead of waiting on hold for assistance.

including considering using ID.me to verify claimants’ identities, to identify accounts that should be unfrozen. By March 1, 2022, the department shall direct the institution to take action to freeze or unfreeze accounts as appropriate to ensure that it provides legitimate claimants with benefits but does not pay benefits related to fraudulent claims.

institution reports to it as suspicious or potentially fraudulent, by February 2022, the department shall establish a centralized tracking tool that allows it to review and stop payment on claims, as appropriate. The department shall use this tool to monitor its own internal decisions and track whether the claimant responds to its requests for identity information and should, therefore, have their account unfrozen.

appropriation by the Legislature, by March 1, 2022, the department shall designate a unit as responsible for coordinating all fraud prevention and detection. The department shall assign that unit sufficient authority to carry out its responsibilities and align the unit’s duties with the Government Operations Agency’s framework for fraud prevention.