(ii) TRAINING.—The Secretary shall 
establish best practices for training any 
relevant employee of the Department or a 
State workforce agency to reduce the im-
pact of automation bias. 
(C) MONITORING.—The Secretary shall 
continuously monitor claim determinations that 
rely, in part, on the use of a high-risk auto-
mated decision system to ensure that biased re-
sults based on the characteristics described in 
subparagraph (B)(i)(III)(bb) do not occur. 
(c) PRE-DEVELOPMENT STUDY AND REPORT.— 
(1) STUDY.—Prior to the development of the 
technology capabilities under subsection (a) or the 
procurement of such technology capabilities under 
subsection (g), the Secretary, in coordination with 
the Administrator, shall conduct a study assessing 
the technology needs of Federal and State unem-
ployment compensation programs. Such study shall 
consider the following: 
(A) The Federal and State capabilities 
that need to be upgraded or replaced to ensure 
the smooth administration of their respective 
unemployment compensation programs. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00011
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
(B) How to design and develop a federally 
maintained system that serves the needs of both 
the Federal Government and each of the State 
unemployment compensation programs. 
(C) The features necessary to effectively 
respond to rapid changes in volume in times of 
emergency, including features that enable easy 
adaptation of, and updates to, such technology 
capabilities in order to implement new rules or 
benefits. 
(D) The features necessary to ensure the 
technology capabilities have the capacity to han-
dle an increased number of claims during peri-
ods of high unemployment. 
(E) How the technology capabilities can 
prioritize claimant experience and ensure acces-
sibility, including by soliciting feedback from 
claimants and claimant representatives during 
the development process. 
(F) How the technology capabilities can 
ensure effective and equitable benefit delivery, 
including the following: 
(i) The standardization of data collec-
tion and reporting across States to facili-
tate administration and interoperability. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00012
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
(ii) The features that will facilitate ac-
curate and timely delivery of benefits and 
reduce the time from successful unemploy-
ment compensation claim to benefit deliv-
ery. 
(iii) The features that will help to 
identify and prevent organized fraud 
schemes without causing unreasonable 
delays for legitimate claimants or penal-
izing mistakes. 
(iv) The appropriate level of ongoing 
audit and analysis needed to evaluate the 
effectiveness and equitability of benefit de-
livery. 
(v) How privacy-protective data expo-
sure and exchange between government en-
tities and privacy-protective public report-
ing could be utilized to improve and ensure 
effective and equitable benefit delivery. 
(G) How the technology capabilities can 
improve the employer experience, including tax 
payment, the submission of wage information, 
and the verification of claim information. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00013
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
(H) How the technology capabilities can 
improve processes for employees of State work-
force agencies. 
(I) The information security measures nec-
essary to protect claimants’ personal data while 
enabling auditing and research, including rec-
ommendations for privacy-protective technolo-
gies, such as secure multi-party computation, 
that can enable such auditing and research in 
a manner that does not involve sharing data on 
individual claimants. 
(J) How the technology capabilities can 
improve data sharing among States and the 
Federal Government with respect to recipiency, 
benefit levels, timeliness, and accuracy. 
(K) How the technology capabilities can 
minimize disparities in unemployment com-
pensation recipiency by race, gender, ethnicity, 
disability status, income, or occupation, and 
prevent any increase in such disparities. 
(L) Potential approaches for development 
or procurement of the technology capabilities, 
including, for each approach presented, range 
estimates for development, implementation, and 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00014
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
operational costs, and range estimates of capa-
bility delivery schedules. 
(2) REPORT.—Not later than 4 months after 
the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary, 
in coordination with the Administrator, shall submit 
to Congress a report containing the results of the 
study conducted under paragraph (1), together with 
the Department’s strategy for development and pro-
curement of the technology capabilities, including 
any recommendations for such legislation and ad-
ministrative action as the Secretary determines ap-
propriate. 
(d) DIGITAL SERVICES TEAM.— 
(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary, in co-
ordination with the Administrator, shall establish in 
the Department a Digital Services Team (in this 
section referred to as the ‘‘Team’’). 
(2) MEMBERSHIP.—The Team shall include— 
(A) technology experts; 
(B) user experience experts; 
(C) an experienced technical team leader 
with experience in human-centered design and 
modern software development practices; and 
(D) any other member deemed appropriate 
by the Secretary. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00015
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
(3) DUTIES.—The Team shall carry out the fol-
lowing duties: 
(A) Assist the Secretary in the develop-
ment, operation, and maintenance of the tech-
nology capabilities under subsection (a). 
(B) After the development and deployment 
of the technology capabilities under subsection 
(a) is complete, assist the Secretary in oper-
ating and overseeing the maintenance and con-
tinued improvement of the technology capabili-
ties, including by providing technological assist-
ance— 
(i) to State workforce agencies; and 
(ii) to States seeking to adapt their 
State databases to interface with the feder-
ally provided modular and open systems 
technology capabilities described in sub-
section (b)(1)(E). 
(C) Ensure the Department has sufficient 
in-house technical expertise and procurement 
support. 
(D) Assist the Department with technology 
needs. 
(E) Engage in such other activities deemed 
appropriate by the Secretary. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
20:37 Apr 16, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00016
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
(4) STAFF
AND
RESOURCES.—The Secretary 
shall ensure that the Team has such staff, resources, 
and access to information as may be necessary to 
carry out the duties of the Team. 
(5) DIGITAL SERVICES TEAM FUNDING.—Out of 
any money in the Treasury not otherwise appro-
priated, there are appropriated to the Secretary 
$5,000,000 to carry out this subsection. Amounts 
appropriated under the preceding sentence shall re-
main available until expended. 
(e) PILOT PROGRAM.—Prior to the deployment of the 
technology capabilities to all States, the Secretary shall 
select not fewer than 4 States to participate in a pilot pro-
gram to test the technology capabilities and demonstrate 
that such technology capabilities meet the requirements 
and end-to-end user experience needs established by this 
Act, including those identified in the pre-development 
study described in subsection (c)(1). 
(f) DATA SHARING.—To enable the storage, expo-
sure, and exchange of data required by States to admin-
ister their unemployment compensation programs, the 
Secretary shall— 
(1) establish Computer Matching Agreements in 
accordance with the Computer Matching and Pri-
vacy Protection Act of 1988 (5 U.S.C. 552a note) 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00017
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
to obtain information necessary to verify a claim-
ant’s eligibility for unemployment compensation; 
(2) determine appropriate aggregate data to 
share on a regular basis with the public through the 
Data.gov internet website pursuant to the Founda-
tions for Evidence-Based Policy Making Act of 2018 
(5 U.S.C. 101 note); 
(3) establish appropriate controls and moni-
toring to make available only the data necessary for 
States to administer their unemployment compensa-
tion programs; and 
(4) establish a data retention policy for retain-
ing or archiving historical unemployment compensa-
tion program data as deemed appropriate. 
(g) PROCUREMENT AND CONTRACTS WITH PRIVATE 
VENDORS.—If the Secretary contracts with a private ven-
dor to procure or develop or assist with the development 
of the technology capabilities under subsection (a), the 
Secretary shall— 
(1) ensure that any agreement with such pri-
vate vendor stipulates that the resulting technology 
capabilities and associated research, applications, 
automated processes, and associated metadata shall 
be the proprietary information of the Federal Gov-
ernment; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00018
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
(2) follow best practices for Government IT 
procurement to de-risk projects; and 
(3) provide funding based on program outcomes 
rather than volume. 
(h) OVERSIGHT.— 
(1) OVERSIGHT.—During and after the develop-
ment of the technology capabilities under subsection 
(a), the Secretary shall— 
(A) respond to requests from Congress for 
updates on the development of the technology 
capabilities; and 
(B) participate in oversight hearings and 
demonstrations of the technology capabilities as 
requested by Congress. 
(2) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE STATUS.—Not later 
than 6 months after the date of enactment of this 
section, the Secretary shall establish and maintain 
publicly available content, available on the internet 
website of the Department, that provides the status 
of— 
(A) the technology capabilities being devel-
oped under this section; 
(B) the metrics of success for such devel-
opment; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00019
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
(C) the results from piloting and testing of 
such technology capabilities; and 
(D) deployment of such technology capa-
bilities in each of the States and the Federal 
Government. 
(i) TECHNOLOGY
CAPABILITIES
MODERNIZATION 
FUNDING.—Out of any money in the Treasury not other-
wise appropriated, there are appropriated to the Secretary 
$500,000,000 to carry out this section (other than sub-
section (d)). Amounts appropriated under the preceding 
sentence shall remain available until expended. 
(j) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of the United 
States Digital Service. 
(2) AUTOMATED DECISION SYSTEM.—The term 
‘‘automated decision system’’ means a computational 
process, including one derived from machine learn-
ing, statistics, or other data processing or artificial 
intelligence techniques, that makes a decision or fa-
cilitates human decision making that impacts claim-
ants. 
(3) AUTOMATION BIAS.—The term ‘‘automation 
bias’’ means the tendency for humans to over-rely on 
the recommendation of an automated decision sys-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00020
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS
tem, to place overconfidence in such recommendation 
based on perceived superiority to analog or human 
processes, or to ignore evidence that would indicate 
the automated decision system has made an error. 
(4) CLAIMANT.—The term ‘‘claimant’’ means a 
claimant for unemployment compensation. 
(5) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 
means the Department of Labor. 
(6) HIGH-RISK
AUTOMATED
DECISION
SYS-
TEM.—The term ‘‘high-risk automated decision sys-
tem’’ means an automated decision system that— 
(A) poses a significant risk— 
(i) to the privacy or security of per-
sonal information of claimants; or 
(ii) of resulting in or contributing to 
inaccurate, unfair, biased, or discrimina-
tory decisions impacting claimants; 
(B) makes decisions, or facilitates human 
decision making, based on systematic evalua-
tions of current and historical claimant data, 
including attempts to analyze or predict sen-
sitive aspects of claimants’ lives or characteris-
tics or activities that may affect their eligibility 
for unemployment compensation, such as their 
reason for separation from employment, avail-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:28 Apr 15, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00021
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1458.IH
H1458
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS