UI Integrity Center of Excellence Operations

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) intends to award a cooperative agreement to the Center for Employment Security Education and Research (CESER) for continued operations of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Integrity Center of Excellence (Integrity Center).The Full Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (Public Law 119-7) provides continuing Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 funding for federal agencies for the remainder of FY 2025, funding most programs and activities at the FY 2024 levels. This includes the funding authorized under the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law 118-47) which provided “… $9,000,000 for continued support of the Unemployment Insurance Integrity Center of Excellence… .” as part of the Department’s appropriation for State Unemployment Insurance and Employment Service Operations. The UI Integrity Center has been operated by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies’ (NASWA)/CESER since FY 2017. CESER is a 501(c)(3) entity incorporated in August 1994 as an education and research arm of the NASWA, which is a national organization of state administrators of the publicly-funded state workforce system and is a leading provider of information technology, education, and research support focused exclusively on UI and workforce development initiatives and activities. The primary mission of the UI Integrity Center is to provide training and technical assistance to states to improve UI program integrity; develop and disseminate UI program integrity resources and promote innovative new tools and products that are transferable and scalable for all states to prevent UI improper payments and enhance fraud prevention solutions; and enable rapid alerts to states on new improper payment practices and fraud schemes as they are identified.