Prairie State Wire

Illinois House Republicans are asking questions about a potential massive data breach that occurred last month with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) web portal.

House Rep. Terri Bryant (R- Murphysboro) said she submitted a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on May 16 demanding answers about the possible data breach involving tens of thousands of Illinoisans.

"I received a panicked phone call on May 15 from a constituent who was filing for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and came across a page on the website that contained the data of many people who had applied for unemployment," Bryant said. "I notified two people in the governor’s office and high-ranking staff members of the Republican Caucus. I spoke with my constituent again later that evening and we believed the issue had been resolved."

Bryant said she was disturbed that she had not received a response from the governor’s office since she personally alerted them about the issue. After not hearing back, she sent a letter to Pritzker and IDES the next day.

"I received a reply that said they were working on the problem," Bryant said. "Keep in mind that I went to bed that night thinking that the problem had been fixed and there we were Saturday morning and a real determination had not been made to know if it was fixed. After 30 hours I released the letter to the media."

Bryant said, since then, IDES has admitted that a data breach occurred with the information of 32,000 Illinoisans.

"I have been very disappointed with the governor’s attitude during press briefings on the breach, and with IDES," Bryant said. "This is a big deal. The state government has not only failed to give them the assistance they need but that their identity was compromised by the very same system."

Bryant said she wants to find out what is going on with IDES.

"I am calling on auditor general to perform a full-range audit of IDES," Bryant said. "The four of us are filing a House resolution."

House Rep. Mike Marron (R-Fithian) said that IDES has been failing to catch up on the backlog of employees and business owners seeking relief from the governor’s COVID-19 shutdown.

"The General Assembly needs answers to why this is not getting fixed," Marron said. "They can’t understand why the administration is not getting this fixed. Many business owners were successful because they had a 'get it done' attitude. Now that the need relief, they are extremely frustrated that the governor hasn’t used this same approach."

Marron said leaders have a responsibility to see that the system works and people get their benefits.

"Resources and manpower exist to fix the problem," Marron said. "This is unacceptable. We want to be part of the solution. Before we can provide solutions, we need to know why the system is failing."

The governor has repeatedly refused to have an honest discussion as to why the IDES system is failing, Marron said.

"The governor doesn’t even acknowledge there is a problem," Marron said. "If he won’t take responsibility to fix this mess, we will."

Marron said Pritzker should admit the department has failed and from here on, commit the resources to get this fixed.

"If he will not act we will do the job for him," Marron said. "We are asking for an extensive audit of the system now."

House Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) said when Pritzker’s order took effect in March, he forced a million residents out of work.

"He should have ensured the system was working properly," Meier said. 

Meier questioned why it was taking so long for the system to work.

"Why has it taken the state a month longer to employ the new system?" Meier asked.

Meier also said he was disappointed with the new system.

"The enrollment website failed to protect sensitive information," Meier said. "We want to know what went wrong and what IDES is doing to ensure this never happens again."

Meier said he also wanted to know why Deloitte was given the contract for the new system.

"I'm concerned with the process for a no-bid process with Deloitte," Meier said. "This audit will provide us with an accurate act as to what went wrong."

Meier said he worried for his constituents, as well as all Illinoisans who have not worked since March, nor received unemployment compensation.

"Since the governor put these people out of work, they have not been able to buy anything for 11 weeks because they’ve never received checks," Meier said.

House Rep. Bradley Stephens (R-Rosemont) said that Illinois employees willingly obliged to close down because they knew they’d be safe at home.

"Their health and safety were at stake," Stephens said. "It’s been about 10 weeks and the governor has not kept up his end of the bargain."

Stephens said the state continues to delay benefits.

"Several thousands of families are without income," Stephens said. 

Stephens said service is getting worse and not better.

“These employees complied with the stay at home order, and they kept up their end of the bargain by staying at home," Stephens said.

Stephens said it is unfathomable that those seeking unemployment are still receiving responses that are delayed by weeks, calls are being dropped and the website is still unable to handle the claims.

"It appears the $22 million spent by the governor to update and improve IDES systems was a monumental waste of taxpayer money," Stephens said.

Stephens said with the pandemic unemployment assistance became available online, Pritzker assured reporters that IDES would be ready to go live and claims would process faster, but that hasn't been the case.

Stephens said there had been a horrific amount of issues leading up to identities potentially being stolen.

"This is an incompetency matter," Stephens said. "The governor has repeatedly refused to accept our requests for help.".

Stephens said Pritzker is going through it alone

"We in the House Republican Caucus are ready and willing to help," Stephens said. "We want to force an audit of IDES."

The four lawmakers, along with other House Republicans, filed House Resolution 860 on May 29, calling for a full audit of IDES and its unemployment benefits application system.