[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4868 Referred in Senate (RFS)]
103d CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4868
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
August 17 (legislative day, August 11), 1994
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Labor and Human
Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
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) Payment of Unemployment Benefits.--
``(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) Waiting period for 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) Payment of Sickness Benefits.--
``(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) Waiting period for 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.
``(iv) Special rule regarding end of period.--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 to read 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 employee 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) General rule.--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) Exception.--In the case of a succeeding
benefit year beginning in accordance with subparagraph
(A) 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.
Passed the House of Representatives August 16, 1994.
Attest:
DONNALD K. ANDERSON,
Clerk.