Evening star., 1935-01-20
LOB RESERVE BILL
| FOR D. c. PLANNED
Wagner Will Re-Introduce
Local Measure-0thers
Being Studied.

As House and Senate committees
prepared to begin hearings this week
on the Nation wide social security
program, Senator Wagner, Democrat,
of New York announced yesterday he
will reintroduce soon the District OF
Columbia unemployment reserve plan
he presented in the last Congress.
With a District old-age pension bill
already pending in the Senate
District Committee, Senator Wagner's
announcement means that while
Congress is working out details Of
the program for Federal aid to social
security, it also will be considering
separate measures that would enable
the District to come within the terms
of the Federal assistance. Senator
Wagner, with Representative Lewis,
Democrat, of Maryland, Is sponsoring
the administrators national plan.
The Wagner unemployment reserve
plan for the District was first intro
duced by the New Yorker IN June,
1898, but never considered nor made
the subject of hearings. 1t died with
the ending of the seventy-third
Congress last Summer.
More Important Now.
Reintroduced at this time, how
ever, the bill would assume more i'm
portance, since the pending national
plan contemplates a Federal tax on
pay rolls, designed to induce the
States and the District to enact COM
pulsory unemployment insurance laws
The national bill would allow en-
ployers to credit against the Federal
pay roll tax, up to 80 per cent. what
ever they contribute to an unemploy-
ment insurance fund under local law
States which enact their own unem-
ployment insurance laws then Woulo
be eligible to share in the Distribution
of Federal subsidies to help administer
these State plans, provide the local
law measures up to the standards con-
tanned in the proposed national Sc
c,lrity law. For the next fiscal year
it is proposed to distribute $4,SO0,0Ou
in Federal subsidies for this purpose
and for each succeeding fiscal year
SAC 100000.
Since Wagner's local unemployment
reserve plan was originally drafted
more than a year prior to the neWly
proposed Federal program, 1t probably
will be studied to see whether 1t har-
monies with the conditions IN the ma
tional legislation.
Indications are that the District
committees will wait until it is known
what the final form of the national
law is to be before seeking action on
local bills, either on old-age pensions
or unemployment insurance.
Reserve Fund Proposed.
The District unemployment reserve
plan. as introduced in the last Con-
gress, placed administration OF the
law under the Secretary Of Labor, and
contemplated the setting up OF an
unemployment reserve fund by having
each employer contribute per cent
of the pay roll of those workers for
whom he would be liable to pay bene-
fits. The definition of an employe In
the bill excluded those receiving $4,000
or more a year employed at other than
manual labor.
Under the proposed national bill,
these local contributions could be
credited against the Federal pay roll
tax. While the national bill contem-
plates a 8 per cent pay roll tax begin
ming in 1888, 1t also provides that
between January /, 1886, and January
/, 1888, this tax shall be reduced to
per cent until the Federal Reserve
Board index of total industrial produc.
ton reaches over 84 per cent OF the
1e23-25 level, and reduced to 2 pei
cent until that index reaches 95 pei
cent of such level.
A feature of the local Wagner bill
as it stood in the last Congress, was
a provision allowing the Secretary OF
Labor to exempt from contribution
to the Government reserve fund, any
employer or group Of employers who
submitted a plan for unemployment
benefits for their workers at least
equal to the conditions laid down for
those administered through the fund.
Senator Wagner indicated yester-
day he believed that in the District
unemployment reserve plan this fea-
ture could be worked out to conform
to the national plan.
The reserve fund would be used to
pay benefits to workers when unem-
ployment continues beyond a waiting
period of three weeks There are va
rious limitations, including a limit on
the number of weeks of benefit pay
ments an employe could receive in
one year.
Reduction Provision.
The bill also contains provisions
under which the employers contribu-
ton would be reduced to per cent
of the pay roll whenever his account
amounts to between SOS and 500 OF
reserve per employe. Whenever the
employers account amounted to 500
of reserve per employe, no contribu-
tions would be required to the fund
during such period.
The pending old-age pension bill for
the District is being sponsored jointly
by Senators Copeland of New York
and Capper Of Kansas, and is in the
same form as approved by both House
and Senate committees last year.
It leaves the exact amount of the
pensions to be fixed by the Commis-
sioners, or an agency to be designated
by them, but in no instance could
an allowance exceed $35 per month.
1t has been unofhcially estimated the
average pension under the local bill
probably would be $40. Under the
administrations national plan, the
Federal Government would match To-
cal old-age pension payments, up to
a maximum of SIS. If the District
gave a SIS pension, for instance, the
total, with the Federal aid, would be
$50, and any payment above that
would come entirely from local funds
When the question was up for con-
sideration last year it was estimated,
conservatively, that the District old
age pension appropriation for the first
year would be about $250,000. This
was based on 1000 persons being
granted pensions. A revised estimate
probably will be obtained, however,
before the bill Ia enacted.