WASHINGTON - The Republican proposal to end the guarantee of federal unemployment insurance, passed out of the Ways and Means Committee in May on a party line vote, appears to be even more reckless than originally advertised. The Department of Labor, writing in response to a letter from Reps. Sander Levin and Lloyd Doggett, has made clear that some Republican assertions about HR 1745 may not accurately reflect the impact of the legislation on unemployed workers and on states. The Department’s letter specifically questions the claim by Republicans that the bill ensures adequate funds to continue current unemployment benefits in every State that chooses to continue such compensation under the bill, and the claim that, if state legislatures do not act, all current benefits will continue.
“We have always known that the basic premise of the Republican bill - ending the current guarantee of Federal unemployment insurance - is a reckless step at a time when far too many Americans are still looking for work," said Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin. “But the more we study the legislation, the more troubling it gets. The bill’s authors have claimed that unless states pass laws to the contrary, all current benefits will continue. The Department of Labor clearly says that’s not necessarily the case. Republicans should permanently abandon this effort to blame the unemployed for unemployment, and join with us to create jobs."
“In another act of blaming unemployment on the unemployed, this Republican bill-deceptively labeled a ‘jobs bill’-encourages states to terminate assistance to as many as 4 million long-term unemployed Americans," said Human Resources Subcommittee Ranking Member Lloyd Doggett. “Republicans take from the unemployed and shift funds to state governments that failed to manage their budgets or to prepare for a recession."
Reps. Levin and Doggett specifically requested that the Department of Labor examine the veracity of Republican assertions that under HR 1745, “Each State could continue paying exactly the same benefits as today...and have all the money they need to do so. In fact, absent action by a State legislature, that is exactly what will happen."
In response, the Department of Labor found that these claims were inaccurate. DOL Assistant Secretary Jane Oates said in the letter: “it is not accurate that states will necessarily provide the same benefits as today absent legislation action. Moreover, some states are unlikely to have the funding necessary to provide the same benefits as they would under current law."
A full copy of the DOL letter is linked here.
A copy of the letter sent by Reps. Levin and Doggett can be viewed here. #
