SB 671

This bill makes various changes in the unemployment insurance (UI) law,

which is administered by the Department of Workforce Development. Significant

changes include all of the following:

Unemployment insurance financial outlook statement; council report;

special committee

Under current law, DWD must submit a statement regarding the

unemployment insurance financial outlook to the governor and legislative

leadership by April 15 of every odd-numbered year. The report must contain all of

the following: 1) financial projections of unemployment insurance operations,

including benefit payments, tax collections, borrowing or debt repayments, and any

amounts of interest charges and the economic and public policy assumptions upon

which the projections are based, and the impact upon the projections of variations

from those assumptions; 2) proposed changes to the laws relating to unemployment

insurance financing, benefits, and administration and financial projections under

the proposed changes; 3) if there are significant cash reserves in the unemployment

fund, the justifications for maintaining them; and 4) if program debt is projected at

the end of the forecast period, the reasons DWD is not proposing to liquidate the debt.

This bill changes the submittal deadline of the statement to May 31 of every

even-numbered year. The bill also requires the statement to contain proposed

methods for liquidating any debt, instead of the reasons DWD is not proposing to

liquidate any debt.

Under current law, DWD must submit a report of the activities of the Council

on Unemployment Insurance to the governor and legislative leadership by May 15

of each odd-numbered year. Current law also requires DWD to submit to each

member of the legislature by June 15 of each odd-numbered year an updated

statement of unemployment insurance financial outlook.

The bill replaces the two aforementioned requirements with a single

requirement for DWD to submit, by January 31 of each even-numbered year, a

report of the activities of the Council on Unemployment Insurance and the most

recent statement regarding the unemployment insurance financial outlook to the

governor and legislative leadership, rather than to every member of the legislature.

Finally, under current law, after the report and statement are submitted to the

governor and leadership on May 15 of each odd-numbered year, the governor may

convene a special committee to review the financial outlook statement and the

activities report. This bill repeals that provision. Under current law, the governor

may otherwise convene a committee by executive order.

Benefits for certain employees

Under current law, a claimant for UI benefits is ineligible to receive any benefits

for a week in which the claimant performs 32 or more hours of work. This bill

requires DWD to disregard an employee's hours worked for an employer in a given