Charging of unemployment insurance benefits related to a public health emergency. (FE)

What it would have done

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Current law, as enacted in 2019 Wisconsin Act 185 , requires the Department of Workforce Development, when processing claims for unemployment insurance benefits and evaluating work-share plans, to determine whether a claim or plan is related to the public health emergency declared by the governor under Executive Order 72. If a claim is so related, current law provides that the regular benefits for that claim for weeks occurring after March 12, 2020, and before December 31, 2020, not be charged to the employers' accounts in the unemployment trust fund or to the employers directly, as is normally provided. Instead, the benefits for those weeks are, subject to numerous exceptions, to be charged to other accounts. This bill provides for this noncharging of benefits to continue through March 13, 2021, and requires DWD to presume that an initial claim for benefit years beginning on or after March 15, 2020, through March 13, 2021, relates to the public health emergency declared on March 12, 2020, by Executive Order 72 unless one of certain exceptions applies.

The bill provides that an employer is not required to submit a request for charging relief for initial claims filed through March 13, 2021.

Who's behind it

11 senators are its authors⁠. All 11 are Democrats.

38 more lawmakers signed on in support⁠.