The 113th Congress may face a number of issues related to currently available unemployment insurance programs: Unemployment Compensation (UC), temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08), and Extended Benefits (EB). With the national unemployment rate decreasing but still high, the weekly demand for extended unemployment benefits continues at elevated levels. Congress deliberated multiple times on whether to extend the authorization for several key temporary unemployment insurance provisions in the 112th Congress and may do so again in the 113th Congress. The signing of P.L. 112-240 on January 2, 2013, now means that the EUC08 program expires the week ending on or before January 1, 2014. The 100% federal financing of the EB program expires on December 31, 2013. In addition, the option for states to use three-year EB trigger lookbacks (the period of time considered in determining an active EB program within a state) expires the week ending on or before December 31, 2013.
The 113th Congress will face these expirations as well as likely unemployment insurance policy issues, including unemployment insurance financing, integrity measures, and the appropriate length and availability of unemployment benefits.
This report provides a brief overview of the three unemployment insurance programs—UC, EUC08, and EB—that may currently pay benefits to eligible unemployed workers. This report contains a brief explanation of how the EUC08 program, as well as some other UC-related payments, began to experience reductions in benefits as a result of the sequester order contained within the Budget Control Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-25).
This report also includes descriptions of the unemployment insurance provisions within H.R. 51, H.R. 188, H.R. 1172, H.R. 1229, H.R. 1277, H.R. 1502, H.R. 1530, H.R. 1617, H.R. 2177, H.R. 2448, H.R. 2821, H.R. 2826, H.R. 2889, S. 18, S. 803, and S. 1099, as well as the President’s Budget Proposal for FY2014
