House approves UI, TANF Fund extensions.
House Approves Extensions of UI, TANF Emergency Fund, Additional Funding for Summer Jobs; Senate Action Delayed Until After Memorial Day Recess
On May 28, the House approved a substantially scaled-back version of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (HR 4213), which includes a temporary extension of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for out-of-work Americans, an extension of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Contingency Fund (ECF), and additional funding for summer youth employment programs.
Faced with strong resistance from Republicans and fiscally conservative Democratic members concerned about adding to the federal deficit, House leaders were forced to substantially cut overall spending in the final extenders bill in order to pass the bill. As a result, the final legislation does not include extensions of the FMAP Medicaid assistance program for states or COBRA health care subsidies for unemployed workers, which were part of the original draft legislation released by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI) on May 20. Another provision included in the Baucus/Levin draft, blocking cuts in Medicare payments for physicians, was included in the final bill but received a separate vote for procedural purposes.
The extenders bill must now go to the Senate for approval, but Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated that the Senate will not take the bill up until after the Memorial Day recess. As a result, the current UI/COBRA extensions will lapse, at least temporarily, for the third time since April, leaving hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers and their families without vital assistance to cover household expenses. It is also unclear whether there are sufficient votes in the Senate to pass the bill in its current form, meaning further delays and changes to the legislation are possible.
In its current form, the bill contains several provisions of interest to the workforce development field:
A one-year extension, through September 2011, of the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund, which was established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) and provides for partial federal reimbursement of certain state TANF expenditures, including subsidized jobs programs. The bill would also provide an additional $2.5 billion for the program in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011.
Approximately 30 states are currently operating, or are implementing, subsidized jobs programs for 185,000 low-income workers under the emergency fund.
$1 billion for summer youth employment programs, which will help to place as many as 300,000 individuals between the ages of 16-24 in summer jobs.
Expansion of participant eligibility under the Community College and Career Training Grant (CCCTG) Program to include individuals who are eligible (or are likely to be eligible) for UI, or who have exhausted their UI benefits. The CCCTG program was established as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program reauthorization under the Recovery Act and recently received $500 million per year in FY 2011-14 as part of the reconciliation bill.
Extensions through November 2010 of expanded Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits originally authorized under the Recovery Act.
National Skills Coalition will continue to monitor this legislation and provide updates as new information becomes available.
