[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4868 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4868

To amend the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to reduce the waiting 
  period for benefits payable under that Act, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 1, 1994

 Mr. Swift (for himself and Mr. Oxley) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to reduce the waiting 
  period for benefits payable under that Act, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Railroad Unemployment Insurance 
Amendments Act of 1994''.

SEC. 2. WAITING PERIOD FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS.

    Section 2(a)(1)(A) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act is 
amended to read as follows:
                    ``(A) Waiting period.--
                            ``(i) Generally.--Except as otherwise 
                        provided in this subparagraph, benefits shall 
                        be payable to any qualified employee for each 
                        day of unemployment in excess of 4 during any 
                        registration period within a period of 
                        continuing unemployment.
                            ``(ii) First registration period.--Benefits 
                        shall be payable to any qualified employee for 
                        each day of unemployment in excess of 7 during 
                        that employee's first registration period in a 
                        period of continuing unemployment if--
                                    ``(I) such registration period 
                                includes more than 4 days of 
                                unemployment; and
                                    ``(II) such period of continuing 
                                unemployment is the employee's initial 
                                period of continuing unemployment in 
                                the benefit year.
                            ``(iii) Strikes.--
                                    ``(I) Initial 14-day waiting 
                                period.--If the Board finds that a 
                                qualified employee has a period of 
                                continuing unemployment that includes 
                                days of unemployment due to a stoppage 
                                of work because of a strike in the 
                                establishment, premises, or enterprise 
                                at which such employee was last 
                                employed, no benefits shall be payable 
                                for such employee's first 14 days of 
                                unemployment due to such stoppage of 
                                work.
                                    ``(II) Subsequent days of 
                                unemployment.--For subsequent days of 
                                unemployment due to the same stoppage 
                                of work, benefits shall be payable as 
                                provided in clause (i) of this 
                                subparagraph.
                                    ``(III) Subsequent periods of 
                                continuing unemployment.--If such 
                                period of continuing unemployment ends 
                                by reason of clause (v) but the 
                                stoppage of work continues, the waiting 
                                period established in clause (ii) shall 
                                apply to the employee's first 
                                registration period in a new period of 
                                continuing unemployment based upon the 
                                same stoppage of work.
                            ``(iv) Definition of period of continuing 
                        unemployment.--Except as limited by clause (v), 
                        for the purposes of this subparagraph, the term 
                        `period of continuing unemployment' means--
                                    ``(I) a single registration period 
                                that includes more than 4 days of 
                                unemployment;
                                    ``(II) a series of consecutive 
                                registration periods, each of which 
                                includes more than 4 days of 
                                unemployment; or
                                    ``(III) a series of successive 
                                registration periods, each of which 
                                includes more than 4 days of 
                                unemployment, if each succeeding 
                                registration period begins within 15 
                                days after the last day of the 
                                immediately preceding registration 
                                period.
                            ``(v) Special rule regarding end of 
                        period.--For purposes of applying clause (ii), 
                        a period of continuing unemployment ends when 
                        an employee exhausts rights to unemployment 
                        benefits under subsection (c) of this section.
                            ``(vi) Limit on amount of benefits.--No 
                        benefits shall be payable to an otherwise 
                        eligible employee for any day of unemployment 
                        in a registration period where the total amount 
                        of the remuneration (as defined in section 1(j) 
                        of this Act) payable or accruing to him for 
                        days within such registration period exceeds 
                        the amount of the base year monthly 
                        compensation base. For this purpose, an 
                        employee's remuneration shall be deemed to 
                        include the gross amount of any remuneration 
                        that would have become payable to that employee 
                        but did not become payable because that 
                        employee was not ready or willing to perform 
                        suitable work available to that employee on any 
                        day within such registration period.''.

SEC. 3. WAITING PERIOD FOR SICKNESS BENEFITS.

    Section 2(a)(1)(B) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act is 
amended to read as follows:
                    ``(B) Waiting periods.--
                            ``(i) Generally.--Except as otherwise 
                        provided in this subparagraph, benefits shall 
                        be payable to any qualified employee for each 
                        day of sickness after the fourth consecutive 
                        day of sickness in a period of continuing 
                        sickness but excluding 4 days of sickness in 
                        any registration period in such period of 
                        continuing sickness.
                            ``(ii) First registration period.--Benefits 
                        shall be payable to any qualified employee for 
                        each day of sickness in excess of 7 during that 
                        employee's first registration period in a 
                        period of continuing sickness if such 
                        registration period begins with 4 consecutive 
                        days of sickness and includes more than 4 days 
                        of sickness, except that the waiting period 
                        established in this clause shall not apply to 
                        the first registration period in any subsequent 
                        period of continuing sickness that begins in 
                        the same benefit year.
                            ``(iii) Definition of period of continuing 
                        sickness.--For the purposes of this 
                        subparagraph, a period of continuing sickness 
                        means--
                                    ``(I) a period of consecutive days 
                                of sickness, whether from 1 or more 
                                causes; or
                                    ``(II) a period of successive days 
                                of sickness due to a single cause 
                                without interruption of more than 90 
                                consecutive days which are not days of 
                                sickness.
                        For purposes of applying clause (ii), a period 
                        of continuing sickness ends when an employee 
                        exhausts rights to sickness benefits under 
                        subsection (c) of this section.''.

SEC. 4. MAXIMUM DAILY BENEFIT RATE.

    Section 2(a)(3) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act is 
amended as follows:
            ``(3) The maximum daily benefit rate computed by the Board 
        under section 12(r)(2) shall be the product of the monthly 
        compensation base, as computed under section 1(i)(2) for the 
        base year immediately preceding the beginning of the benefit 
        year, multiplied by 5 percent. If the maximum daily benefit 
        rate so computed is not a multiple of $1.00, it shall be 
        rounded down to the nearest multiple of $1.00.''.

SEC. 5. MAXIMUM NUMBER OF DAYS FOR BENEFITS.

    (a) In General.--Section 2(c) of the Railroad Unemployment 
Insurance Act is amended to read as follows:
    ``(c) Maximum Number of Days for Benefits.--
            ``(1) Normal benefits.--
                    ``(A) Generally.--The maximum number of days of 
                unemployment within a benefit year for which benefits 
                may be paid to an employee shall be 130, and the 
                maximum number of days of sickness within a benefit 
                year for which benefits may be paid to an employee 
                shall be 130.
                    ``(B) Limitation.--The total amount of benefits 
                that may be paid to an employee for days of 
                unemployment within a benefit year shall in no case 
                exceed the employee's compensation in the base year; 
                and the total amount of benefits that may be paid to an 
                employee for days of sickness within a benefit year 
                shall in no case exceed the employee's compensation in 
                the base year, except that notwithstanding section 
                1(i), in determining the employee's compensation in the 
                base year for the purpose of this sentence, any money 
                remuneration paid to the employee for services rendered 
                as an employee shall be taken into account that--
                            ``(i) is not in excess of $775 in any month 
                        before 1989; and
                            ``(ii) in any month in a base year after 
                        1988, is not in excess of an amount that bears 
                        the same ratio to $775 as the monthly 
                        compensation base for that year as computed 
                        under section 1(i) bears to $600.
            ``(2) Extended benefits.--
                    ``(A) Generally.--With respect to an employee who 
                has 10 or more years of service as defined in section 
                1(f) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, who did 
                not voluntarily retire and (in a case involving 
                exhaustion of rights to normal benefits for days of 
                unemployment) did not voluntarily leave work without 
                good cause, and who had current rights to normal 
                benefits for days of unemployment or days of sickness 
                in a benefit year but has exhausted such rights, the 
                benefit year in which such rights are exhausted shall 
                be deemed not to be ended until the last day of the 
                extended benefit period determined under this 
                paragraph, and extended unemployment benefits or 
                extended sickness benefits (depending on the type of 
                normal benefit rights exhausted) may be paid for not 
                more than 65 days of unemployment or 65 days of 
                sickness within such extended benefit period.
                    ``(B) Beginning date.--An employee's extended 
                benefit period shall begin on the employee's first day 
                of unemployment or first day of sickness, as the case 
                may be, following the day on which the employee 
                exhausts the employee's then current rights to normal 
                benefits for days of unemployment or days of sickness 
                and shall continue for 7 consecutive 14-day periods, 
                each of which shall constitute a registration period, 
                but no such extended benefit period shall extend beyond 
                the beginning of the first registration period in a 
                benefit year in which the employee is again qualified 
                for benefits in accordance with section 3 on the basis 
                of compensation earned after the first of such 
                consecutive 14-day periods has begun.
                    ``(C) Termination when employer reaches age of 
                65.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this 
                paragraph, an extended benefit period for sickness 
                benefits shall terminate on the day next preceding the 
                date on which the employee attains age 65, except that 
                it may continue for the purpose of paying benefits for 
                days of unemployment.
            ``(3) Accelerated benefits.--
                    ``(A) First year.--With respect to an employee who 
                has 10 or more years of service as defined in section 
                1(f) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, who did 
                not voluntarily retire, and (in a case involving 
                unemployment benefits) did not voluntarily leave work 
                without good cause, who has 14 or more consecutive days 
                of unemployment, or 14 or more consecutive days of 
                sickness, and who is not a qualified employee with 
                respect to the general benefit year current when such 
                unemployment or sickness commences but is or becomes a 
                qualified employee for the next succeeding general 
                benefit year, such succeeding general benefit year 
                shall, in that employee's case, begin on the first day 
                of the month in which such unemployment or sickness 
                commences.
                    ``(B) Succeeding year.--In the case of a succeeding 
                benefit year beginning in accordance with the preceding 
                sentence by reason of sickness, such sentence shall not 
                operate to permit the payment of benefits in the period 
                provided for in such sentence for any day of sickness 
                beginning with the date on which the employee attains 
                age 65, and continuing through the day preceding the 
                first day of the next succeeding general benefit year.
                    ``(C) Determination of age.--For the purposes of 
                this subsection, the Board may rely on evidence of age 
                available in its records and files at the time 
                determinations of age are made.''.
    (b) Repeal of Deadwood Provision.--Section 2(h) of the Railroad 
Unemployment Insurance Act is repealed.
    (c) Repeal of Expired Provision.--Section 17 of the Railroad 
Unemployment Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 368), relating to payment of 
supplemental unemployment benefits, is repealed.

SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the date of 
the enactment of this Act.
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