II 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1943

To provide extended unemployment benefits to displaced workers. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 24, 2003

Mr. LEVIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL

To provide extended unemployment benefits to displaced 

workers.

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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Unemployment Compensation Extension Act’’. 

6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

7 this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

TITLE I—TEMPORARY EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT 

COMPENSATION 

Sec. 101. References. 

Sec. 102. Extension of the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation 

Act of 2002. 
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Sec. 103. Entitlement to additional weeks of temporary extended unemployment 

compensation. 

Sec. 104. TEUC–X trigger. 

TITLE II—EXTENDED BENEFITS UNDER THE FEDERAL-STATE 

EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION ACT OF 1970

Sec. 201. Temporary State authority to waive application of lookbacks under 

the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act 

of 1970. 

TITLE III—RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 

Sec. 301. Temporary increase in extended unemployment benefits under the 

Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

1 TITLE I—TEMPORARY EX2 TENDED UNEMPLOYMENT 

3 COMPENSATION 

4 SEC. 101. REFERENCES. 

5 Except as otherwise expressly provided, whenever in 

6 this title an amendment is expressed in terms of an 

7 amendment to a section or other provision, the reference 

8 shall be considered to be made to a section or other provi9 sion of the Temporary Extended Unemployment Com10 pensation Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–147; 26 U.S.C. 

11 3304 note). 

12 SEC. 102. EXTENSION OF THE TEMPORARY EXTENDED UN13 EMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION ACT OF 2002. 

14 (a) SIX-MONTH EXTENSION OF PROGRAM.—Section 

15 208 is amended to read as follows: 

16 ‘‘SEC. 208. APPLICABILITY. 

17 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (b), an 

18 agreement entered into under this title shall apply to 

19 weeks of unemployment—
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1 ‘‘(1) beginning after the date on which such 

2 agreement is entered into; and 

3 ‘‘(2) ending before July 1, 2004. 

4 ‘‘(b) TRANSITION.—In the case of an individual who 

5 is receiving temporary extended unemployment compensa6 tion for the week which immediately precedes the first day 

7 of the week that includes July 1, 2004, temporary ex8 tended unemployment compensation shall continue to be 

9 payable to such individual for any week thereafter from 

10 the account from which such individual received com11 pensation for the week immediately preceding that termi12 nation date. No compensation shall be payable by reason 

13 of the preceding sentence for any week beginning after De14 cember 31, 2004.’’. 

15 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

16 this section shall take effect as if included in the enact17 ment of the Temporary Extended Unemployment Com18 pensation Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–147; 26 U.S.C. 

19 3304 note). 

20 SEC. 103. ENTITLEMENT TO ADDITIONAL WEEKS OF TEM21 PORARY EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT COM22 PENSATION. 

23 (a) WEEKS OF TEUC AMOUNTS.—Paragraph (1) of 

24 section 203(b) is amended to read as follows: 
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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The amount established in 

2 an account under subsection (a) shall be equal to 26 

3 times the individual’s weekly benefit amount for the 

4 benefit year.’’. 

5 (b) WEEKS OF TEUC–X AMOUNTS.—Section 

6 203(c)(1) is amended by striking ‘‘an amount equal to the 

7 amount originally established in such account (as deter8 mined under subsection (b)(1))’’ and inserting ‘‘7 times 

9 the individual’s weekly benefit amount for the benefit 

10 year’’. 

11 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—The amendments made by 

13 this section—

14 (A) shall take effect as if included in the 

15 enactment of the Temporary Extended Unem16 ployment Compensation Act of 2002 (Public 

17 Law 107–147; 26 U.S.C. 3304 note); but 

18 (B) shall apply only with respect to weeks 

19 of unemployment beginning on or after the date 

20 of enactment of this Act, subject to paragraph 

21 (2). 

22 (2) SPECIAL RULES.—In the case of an indi23 vidual for whom a temporary extended unemploy24 ment compensation account was established before 

25 the date of enactment of this Act, the Temporary 
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1 Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 2002 

2 (as amended by this title) shall be applied subject to 

3 the following: 

4 (A) Any amounts deposited in the individ5 ual’s temporary extended unemployment com6 pensation account by reason of section 203(c) 

7 of such Act (commonly known as ‘‘TEUC–X 

8 amounts’’) before the date of enactment of this 

9 Act shall be treated as amounts deposited by 

10 reason of section 203(b) of such Act (commonly 

11 known as ‘‘TEUC amounts’’), as amended by 

12 subsection (a). 

13 (B) For purposes of determining whether 

14 the individual is eligible for any TEUC–X 

15 amounts under such Act, as amended by this 

16 title—

17 (i) any determination made under sec18 tion 203(c) of such Act before the applica19 tion of the amendments made by this title 

20 shall be disregarded; and

21 (ii) any such determination shall in22 stead be made by applying section 203(c) 

23 of such Act, as amended by this title—

24 (I) as of the time that all 

25 amounts established in such account
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1 in accordance with section 203(b) of 

2 such Act (as amended by this title, 

3 and including any amounts described 

4 in subparagraph (A)) are in fact ex5 hausted, except that 

6 (II) if such individual’s account 

7 was both augmented by and exhausted 

8 of all TEUC–X amounts before the 

9 date of enactment of this Act, such 

10 determination shall be made as if ex11 haustion (as described in section 

12 203(c)(1) of such Act) had not oc13 curred until such date of enactment. 

14 SEC. 104. TEUC–X TRIGGER. 

15 Section 203(c)(2)(B) is amended—

16 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘or’’ at 

17 the end; 

18 (2) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting 

19 the following: 

20 ‘‘(B) such a period would then be in effect 

21 for such State under such Act if—

22 ‘‘(i) section 203(d) of such Act were 

23 applied as if it had been amended by strik24 ing ‘5’ each place it appears and inserting 

25 ‘4’; and 
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1 ‘‘(ii) with respect to weeks of unem2 ployment beginning on or after the date of 

3 enactment of this clause, paragraph (1)(A) 

4 of such section 203(d) did not apply; or 

5 ‘‘(C) with respect to weeks of unemploy6 ment beginning on or after the date of enact7 ment of this clause, the average rate of total 

8 unemployment in such State (seasonally ad9 justed) for the period consisting of the most re10 cent 3 months for which data for all States are 

11 published before the time of exhaustion equals 

12 or exceeds 6.5 percent. 

13 For purposes of this subparagraph (C), determina14 tions of the rate of total unemployment in any State 

15 for any period (and of any seasonal adjustment) 

16 shall be made by the Secretary.’’. 
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1 TITLE II—EXTENDED BENEFITS 

2 UNDER THE FEDERAL-STATE 

3 EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT 

4 COMPENSATION ACT OF 1970. 

5 SEC. 201. TEMPORARY STATE AUTHORITY TO WAIVE APPLI6 CATION OF LOOKBACKS UNDER THE FED7 ERAL-STATE EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT 

8 COMPENSATION ACT OF 1970. 

9 For purposes of conforming with the provisions of the 

10 Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act 

11 of 1970 (26 U.S.C. 3304 note), a State may, for weeks 

12 of unemployment beginning on or after the date of enact13 ment of this Act and ending before December 31, 2004, 

14 waive the application of either subsection (d)(1)(A) of sec15 tion 203 of such Act or subsection (f)(1)(A)(ii) of such 

16 section, or both. 

17 TITLE III—RAILROAD 

18 UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 

19 SEC. 301. TEMPORARY INCREASE IN EXTENDED UNEM20 PLOYMENT BENEFITS UNDER THE RAILROAD 

21 UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT. 

22 Section 2(c)(2) of the Railroad Unemployment Insur23 ance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(c)(2)) is amended by adding at 

24 the end the following: 
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1 ‘‘(D) TEMPORARY INCREASE IN EXTENDED

2 UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS.—

3 ‘‘(i) EMPLOYEES WITH 10 OR MORE

4 YEARS OF SERVICE.—Subject to clause 

5 (iii), in the case of an employee who has 

6 10 or more years of service (as so defined), 

7 with respect to extended unemployment 

8 benefits—

9 ‘‘(I) subparagraph (A) shall be 

10 applied by substituting ‘‘130 days of 

11 unemployment’’ for ‘‘65 days of un12 employment’’; and 

13 ‘‘(II) subparagraph (B) shall be 

14 applied by inserting ‘‘(or, in the case 

15 of unemployment benefits, 13 con16 secutive 14-day periods’’ after ‘‘7 con17 secutive 14-day periods’’. 

18 ‘‘(ii) EMPLOYEES WITH LESS THAN 10

19 YEARS OF SERVICE.—Subject to clause 

20 (iii), in the case of an employee who has 

21 less than 10 years of service (as so de22 fined), with respect to extended unemploy23 ment benefits, this paragraph shall apply 

24 to such an employee in the same manner 

25 as this paragraph would apply to an em-
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1 ployee described in clause (i) if such clause 

2 had not been enacted. 

3 ‘‘(iii) APPLICATION.—The provisions 

4 of clauses (i) and (ii) shall apply to an em5 ployee who received normal benefits for 

6 days of unemployment under this Act dur7 ing the period beginning on July 1, 2002, 

8 and ending before July 1, 2004.’’.

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