MADISON – In his State of the State address this week, Governor Evers called for a special session of the Legislature to vote on a $5 million plan to upgrade Wisconsin’s unemployment system. Legislative Republicans have opposed the upgrade. Representative Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) issued the following statement in response:

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit our state, Wisconsin has faced an unprecedented influx of unemployment claims. Unfortunately, our outdated unemployment system was not prepared for an economic crisis and could not handle this volume of claims. My office has worked with hundreds of constituents to help them navigate the system and get the relief they need, but lengthy delays in getting benefits out the door have caused tremendous unnecessary suffering.

“As Governor Evers has said, it’s time to fix our broken unemployment system. Unfortunately, after spending the last decade passing laws that deliberately made it harder for Wisconsinites to access unemployment benefits, legislative Republicans are now obstructing this badly-needed upgrade. I know our constituents expect us to work together to get this done. I call on Republicans to put politics aside and work with us to make sure this never happens again to the people of Wisconsin.”

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