evidence: In 2020, the world changed in response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19. As businesses shut down, the nation saw immediate demands on the unemployment insurance programs like never before. The COVID-19 pandemic grossly differed from prior U.S. economic downturns, given that systems dealt with initial unemployment claims spiking to max levels in days rather than weeks or months. [...] Notably, this federal plan required many states to adjust their guidelines to provide coverage of unemployment benefits for the first week. Many UI programs have a waiting period for these payments to kick in, which were removed in states during the pandemic to receive this federal assistance. [...] The pandemic may have peaked, but fraud remains systemic. According to the Internal Revenue Service, states have "experienced a surge" in fraudulent UI claims "filed by organized crime rings using stolen identities."