A bill to amend subtitle A of title II of division A of the CARES Act to require confirmation of employment status for long-term unemployed individuals, and for other purposes.
Bill: S.1712 | Sponsor: Sen. Braun, Mike (R-IN)
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
This bill requires each state that offers pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) or pandemic emergency unemployment compensation (PEUC) to condition benefit eligibility for a long-term unemployed individual on an employer's confirmation that work is unavailable for the unemployed individual.
Specifically, each state unemployment agency must request confirmation from the unemployed individual's most recent employer that the individual's position is not available at the time of the request. Unless the employer provides this confirmation, the state must terminate the individual's PUA or PEUC.
The bill's provisions apply only to long-term unemployed individuals who have received PUA or PEUC for more than 30 weeks of unemployment.

To amend subtitle A of title II of division A of the CARES Act to 
  require confirmation of employment status for long-term unemployed 
                  individuals, 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. CONFIRMATION REQUIREMENT.

    Subtitle A of title II of division A of the CARES Act is amended by 
adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 2119. CONFIRMATION OF EMPLOYMENT STATUS FOR LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED 
              INDIVIDUALS.

    ``(a) In General.--As a condition of each of the agreements 
described in sections 2104 and 2107, a State shall--
            ``(1) notify each long-term unemployed individual in the 
        State that the State unemployment agency will seek confirmation 
        of the individual's current employment status from the 
        individual's most recent employer (except in cases in which 
        such employer no longer exists);
            ``(2) request each employer described in paragraph (1) to 
        submit information to the State unemployment agency with 
        respect to each such individual describing whether--
                    ``(A) the individual's position is not available at 
                the time of the request; or
                    ``(B) the individual's position is available but 
                the individual has refused to return to work;
            ``(3) in any case in which an employer submits information 
        to the State unemployment agency with respect to an individual 
        that describes a position that remains unavailable as described 
        in paragraph (1), notify such individual, not later than the 
        standard processing time for applications for regular 
        unemployment compensation in the State after receipt of such 
        information, that the individual's unemployed status has been 
        confirmed; and
            ``(4) in any case in which an employer submits information 
        to the State unemployment agency with respect to an individual 
        that describes a refusal to return to work as described in 
        paragraph (2)(B), or in any case in which an employer fails to 
        submit information described in paragraph (2) not later than 
        the standard processing time for applications for regular 
        unemployment compensation in the State after the date of the 
        request, terminate the individual's Federal Pandemic 
        Unemployment Compensation under section 2104 or Pandemic 
        Emergency Unemployment Compensation under section 2107, as 
        applicable.
    ``(b) Definition.--In this section, the term `long-term unemployed 
individual' means an individual who has received Federal Pandemic 
Unemployment Compensation under section 2104 or Pandemic Emergency 
Unemployment Compensation under section 2107 for more than 30 weeks of 
unemployment.''.
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