Railroad Unemployment Insurance Amendments Act of 1996

Summary: Railroad Unemployment Insurance Amendments Act of 1996 - Amends the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to revise and reduce the waiting period for unemployment benefits.  Repeals the prohibition against payment of benefits for days of unemployment during the first thirteen-day period of unemployment registration within a benefit year in which the employee has more than four days of unemployment. Permits payment of such benefits to an employee after seven days of unemployment during such first registration period during a time of continued unemployment, if such period is the employee's initial period of continuing unemployment in that benefit year.  Prohibits payment of benefits during a registration period in excess of an employee's monthly compensation base for the applicable base year. 
Applies the seven-day waiting period allowance and requirements, where a period of continuing employment is due to a strike-related work stoppage, to an employee's first registration period following exhaustion of benefit rights in a new period of continuing employment based upon the same work stoppage.  (Currently, such waiting period would be 14 days.)  Defines period of continuing unemployment. 
Makes similar revisions to, and reductions in, the waiting period for sickness benefits.  Repeals the prohibition against payment of benefits for days of sickness during the first thirteen-day registration period within a benefit year in which the employee has both four consecutive days of sickness and more than four days of sickness.  Permits payment of such benefits to an employee for each day in excess of seven during such first registration period in a period of continuing sickness if that registration period begins with four consecutive days of sickness and includes more than four days of sickness.  Waives such waiting period for the first registration period in any subsequent period of continuing sickness beginning in the same benefit year.  Defines period of continuing sickness. 
Repeals the current formula for calculating the maximum daily benefit rate to make such rate five percent of the monthly compensation base. 
Repeals the eligibility for extended unemployment benefits of employees with less than ten years of service.  Reduces from to 65 days the maximum number of extended unemployment or sickness benefit days for employees with 15 or more years of service (thus limiting to 65 the maximum number of such extended benefit days for all employees with ten or more years of service). 
Repeals the entitlement to supplemental unemployment benefits of certain employees with less than ten years of service.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Railroad Unemployment Insurance 
Amendments Act of 1996''.

SEC. 2. WAITING PERIOD FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS.

    Subparagraph (A) of section 2(a)(1) of the Railroad Unemployment 
Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(a)(1)(A)) 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 such 
    period of continuing unemployment is the employee's initial period 
    of continuing unemployment commencing 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)) payable or accruing to 
    him for days within such registration period exceeds the amount of 
    the base year monthly compensation base. For purposes of the 
    preceding sentence, 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.

    Subparagraph (B) of section 2(a)(1) of the Railroad Unemployment 
Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(a)(1)(B)) 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 4th 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 period of continuing 
    sickness is the employee's initial period of continuing sickness 
    commencing in the benefit year. For the purposes of this clause, 
    the first registration period in a period of continuing sickness is 
    that registration period that first begins with 4 consecutive days 
    of sickness and includes more than 4 days of sickness.
        ``(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.

    Paragraph (3) of section 2(a) of the Railroad Unemployment 
Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(a)(3)) 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, 
it shall be rounded down to the nearest multiple of $1.''.

SEC. 5. MAXIMUM NUMBER OF DAYS FOR BENEFITS.

    (a) In General.--Subsection (c) of section 2 of the Railroad 
Unemployment Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(c)) 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 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 (45 U.S.C. 352(h)) 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.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.