[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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