[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1853 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1853
To provide extended unemployment benefits to displaced workers.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 12, 2003
Mr. Kennedy (for himself, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Daschle, Mr. Durbin, Mrs.
Murray, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. Levin, Mr. Bingaman, Mr.
Schumer, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Reed, Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. Kerry)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Finance
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide extended unemployment benefits to displaced workers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Unemployment
Compensation Extension Act''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I--TEMPORARY EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
Sec. 101. References.
Sec. 102. Extension of the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation
Act of 2002.
Sec. 103. Entitlement to additional weeks of temporary extended
unemployment compensation.
Sec. 104. TEUC-X trigger fix.
TITLE II--RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
Sec. 201. Temporary increase in extended unemployment benefits under
the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.
TITLE I--TEMPORARY EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
SEC. 101. REFERENCES.
Except as otherwise expressly provided, whenever in this title an
amendment is expressed in terms of an amendment to a section or other
provision, the reference shall be considered to be made to a section or
other provision of the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation Act
of 2002 (Public Law 107-147; 26 U.S.C. 3304 note).
SEC. 102. EXTENSION OF THE TEMPORARY EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
ACT OF 2002.
(a) Six-Month Extension of Program.--Section 208 is amended to read
as follows:
``SEC. 208. APPLICABILITY.
``(a) In General.--Subject to subsection (b), an agreement entered
into under this title shall apply to weeks of unemployment--
``(1) beginning after the date on which such agreement is
entered into; and
``(2) ending before July 1, 2004.
``(b) Transition.--In the case of an individual who is receiving
temporary extended unemployment compensation for the week which
immediately precedes the first day of the week that includes July 1,
2004, temporary extended unemployment compensation shall continue to be
payable to such individual for any week thereafter from the account
from which such individual received compensation for the week
immediately preceding that termination date. No compensation shall be
payable by reason of the preceding sentence for any week beginning
after December 31, 2004.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall take
effect as if included in the enactment of the Temporary Extended
Unemployment Compensation Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-147; 26 U.S.C.
3304 note).
SEC. 103. ENTITLEMENT TO ADDITIONAL WEEKS OF TEMPORARY EXTENDED
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION.
(a) Weeks of TEUC Amounts.--Paragraph (1) of section 203(b) is
amended to read as follows:
``(1) In general.--The amount established in an account
under subsection (a) shall be equal to 26 times the
individual's weekly benefit amount for the benefit year.''.
(b) Weeks of TEUC-X Amounts.--Section 203(c)(1) is amended by
striking ``an amount equal to the amount originally established in such
account (as determined under subsection (b)(1))'' and inserting ``7
times the individual's weekly benefit amount for the benefit year''.
(c) Effective Date.--
(1) In general.--The amendments made by this section--
(A) shall take effect as if included in the
enactment of the Temporary Extended Unemployment
Compensation Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-147; 26 U.S.C.
3304 note); but
(B) shall apply only with respect to weeks of
unemployment beginning on or after the date of
enactment of this Act, subject to paragraph (2).
(2) Special rules.--In the case of an individual for whom a
temporary extended unemployment compensation account was
established before the date of enactment of this Act, the
Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 2002 (as
amended by this title) shall be applied subject to the
following:
(A) Any amounts deposited in the individual's
temporary extended unemployment compensation account by
reason of section 203(c) of such Act (commonly known as
``TEUC-X amounts'') before the date of enactment of
this Act shall be treated as amounts deposited by
reason of section 203(b) of such Act (commonly known as
``TEUC amounts''), as amended by subsection (a).
(B) For purposes of determining whether the
individual is eligible for any TEUC-X amounts under
such Act, as amended by this title--
(i) any determination made under section
203(c) of such Act before the application of
the amendments made by this title shall be
disregarded; and
(ii) any such determination shall instead
be made by applying section 203(c) of such Act,
as amended by this title--
(I) as of the time that all amounts
established in such account in
accordance with section 203(b) of such
Act (as amended by this title, and
including any amounts described in
subparagraph (A)) are in fact
exhausted, except that
(II) if such individual's account
was both augmented by and exhausted of
all TEUC-X amounts before the date of
enactment of this Act, such
determination shall be made as if
exhaustion (as described in section
203(c)(1) of such Act) had not occurred
until such date of enactment.
SEC. 104. TEUC-X TRIGGER FIX.
Section 203(c)(2)(B) is amended to read as follows:
``(B) such a period would then be in effect for
such State under such Act if--
``(i) section 203(d) of such Act were
applied as if it had been amended by striking
`5' each place it appears and inserting `4';
and
``(ii) with respect to weeks of
unemployment beginning on or after the date of
enactment of this clause--
``(I) paragraph (1)(A) of such
section 203(d) did not apply; and
``(II) clause (ii) of section
203(f)(1)(A) of such Act did not
apply.''.
TITLE II--RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
SEC. 201. TEMPORARY INCREASE IN EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS UNDER
THE RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT.
Section 2(c)(2) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (45
U.S.C. 352(c)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(D) Temporary increase in extended unemployment
benefits.--
``(i) Employees with 10 or more years of
service.--Subject to clause (iii), in the case
of an employee who has 10 or more years of
service (as so defined), with respect to
extended unemployment benefits--
``(I) subparagraph (A) shall be
applied by substituting ``130 days of
unemployment'' for ``65 days of
unemployment''; and
``(II) subparagraph (B) shall be
applied by inserting ``(or, in the case
of unemployment benefits, 13
consecutive 14-day periods'' after ``7
consecutive 14-day periods''.
``(ii) Employees with less than 10 years of
service.--Subject to clause (iii), in the case
of an employee who has less than 10 years of
service (as so defined), with respect to
extended unemployment benefits, this paragraph
shall apply to such an employee in the same
manner as this paragraph would apply to an
employee described in clause (i) if such clause
had not been enacted.
``(iii) Application.--The provisions of
clauses (i) and (ii) shall apply to an employee
who received normal benefits for days of
unemployment under this Act during the period
beginning on July 1, 2002, and ending before
July 1, 2004.''.
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