II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1045

To permit States to establish programs using unemployment funds to assist

unemployed individuals in becoming self-employed.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 27 (legislative day, APRIL 19), 1993

Mr. WOFFORD (for himself and Mr. BRADLEY) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Labor and

Human Resources

A BILL

To permit States to establish programs using unemployment

funds to assist unemployed individuals in becoming selfemployed.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Self-Employment Op5 portunity Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. SELF-EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS.

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi8 sion of law, the Secretary of Labor (hereinafter in this

9 section referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) may authorize
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1 States to establish and operate self-employment programs

2 that meet the requirements of this section.

3 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary may authorize

4 a State self-employment program, if a State applies to

5 participate in such a program, and the Secretary deter6 mines that—

7 (1) the State program does not result in any

8 cost to the Unemployment Trust Fund (established

9 by section 904(a) of the Social Security Act) in ex10 cess of the cost that would be incurred by such State

11 and charged to such Fund if the State had not par12 ticipated in a self-employment program;

13 (2) the State program provides unemployment

14 benefits only to individuals who are entitled to un15 employment compensation under State law (without

16 regard to any disqualification resulting from self-em17 ployment and without regard to any State law relat18 ing to availability for work, active search for work,

19 or refusal to accept work);

20 (3) the State program contains a process to tar21 get individuals who have been permanently separated

22 from their jobs or do not expect to be recalled to

23 their jobs;

24 (4) benefits under the State program are avail25 able only to individuals who are likely to receive un-
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1 employment compensation for the maximum number

2 of weeks that such compensation is available under

3 the State law during a benefit year; and

4 (5) the aggregate number of individuals receiv5 ing benefits under the State program does not at

6 any time exceed 5 percent of the number of individ7 uals receiving compensation under the State law at

8 such time.

9 (c) BENEFITS.—If the Secretary authorizes a self10 employment program for a State under this section, the

11 State may use the State unemployment fund to provide

12 cash unemployment benefits, exclusive of the expenses of

13 administration, to individuals participating in the pro14 gram. Such benefits shall be used to assist participating

15 individuals in becoming self-employed.

16 (d) REPORTS.—

17 (1) STATE REPORTS.—Any State operating a

18 self-employment program authorized by the Sec19 retary under this section shall report annually to the

20 Secretary on the number of individuals who partici21 pate in the program, the number of individuals who

22 are able to develop and sustain businesses, the oper23 ating costs of the program, compliance with program

24 requirements, and any other relevant aspects of pro25 gram operations requested by the Secretary.
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1 (2) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later than

2 December 31, 1996, based on the reports received

3 from States operating self-employment programs

4 under this section, the Secretary shall report to the

5 Committee on Finance of the Senate and the Com6 mittee on Ways and Means of the House of Rep7 resentatives with respect to the operation of the

8 State programs. The report shall contain the Sec9 retary’s recommendations regarding establishment of

10 a permanent self-employment program as part of the

11 regular unemployment compensation program.

12 (e) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the

13 terms ‘‘compensation’’, ‘‘regular compensation’’, ‘‘benefit

14 year’’, ‘‘State’’, and ‘‘State law’’, have the respective

15 meanings given such terms by section 205 of the Federal16 State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of

17 1970.

18 (f) TERMINATION.—The provisions of this section

19 shall not apply after September 30, 1997.

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