Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Services Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-904
Sponsor: Sen. Hatch, Orrin G. [R-UT]
Introduced: 2011-05-05 in the Senate
Policy area: Labor and Employment
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Census and government statistics
Department of Labor
Government information and archives
Government trust funds
Intergovernmental relations
State and local finance
State and local government operations
State and local taxation
Unemployment

Summary:
action_date: 2011-05-05
text: 
Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Services Act of 2011 or JOBS Act of 2011 - Amends title III (Grants to States for Unemployment Compensation Administration) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to require state unemployment compensation laws to require, as a condition of eligibility for regular compensation for any week, that an unemployment compensation claimant be able to work, available to work, and actively seeking work.
 
Requires a claimant to meet minimum educational requirements, that is, to: (1) have earned a high school diploma, (2) have earned the General Educational Development (GED) credential or other state-recognized equivalent (including by meeting recognized alternative standards for individuals with disabilities), or (3) be enrolled and making satisfactory progress in classes leading to satisfaction of the latter requirement.
 
Authorizes waiver of such requirements for an individual by a state agency if they would be unduly burdensome.
 
Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to enter into agreements with states to allow them to conduct demonstration projects to test and evaluate measures designed to: (1) expedite the reemployment of individuals who establish initial eligibility for unemployment compensation under state law, or (2) improve the effectiveness of a state in carrying out its state law with respect to reemployment.
 
Amends SSA title XII (Repayment by States of Advances to State Unemployment Funds) to repeal the requirement that a state meet certain funding goals if no payment of interest shall be required with respect to any advances made to it out of the federal unemployment account during any calendar year. (Thus repeals the requirement for higher state taxes.)
 
Amends the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (SAA of 2008) to repeal the requirement (nonreduction rule) that makes a federal-state agreement inapplicable for a state upon a determination by the Secretary that the method governing the computation of regular compensation under state law has been modified to make the average weekly UC benefit paid less than what would have been paid before June 2, 2010.
 
Amends the SSA title IX (Miscellaneous Provisions Relating to Employment Security) to require the Secretary to designate codes and identifiers for any category of information required for data matching in the federal-state unemployment insurance system.
 
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to require states (which, currently, are merely authorized) to reduce current unemployment benefits to recover prior unemployment benefit overpayments.
 
Amends the SSA to require the Secretary of the Treasury to makes special transfers, in FY2011-FY2012, from the extended unemployment compensation (EUC) account to each state's account in the Unemployment Trust Fund an amount determined by using a specified formula. Requires states to spend these funds: (1) to pay current federal unemployment benefits; or (2) for regular or extended unemployment benefits, for repaying federal unemployment loans, or for reemployment services, as specified by a state law passed after enactment of this Act.
 
Repeals requirements under the SAA of 2008 that federal payments to states cover 100% of EUC for a certain period of time.
 
Amends such Act to require the Secretary of the Treasury to transfer from the general fund of the Treasury to the EUC account any sums the Secretary of Labor estimates to be necessary to make payments to states because of certain amendments made by this Act.
 
Amends the Assistance for Unemployed Workers and Struggling Families Act to accelerate from January 4, 2012, to July 6, 2011, termination of the temporary requirement that federal payments to states cover 100% of EUC.
 
Amends the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 to accelerate similarly from December 31, 2011, to June 30, 2011, termination of the period during which a state may determine its &quot;on&quot; and &quot;off&quot; indicators according to specified temporary substitutions in its formula.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-05-05
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2011-05-05
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S2743)
action_date: 2011-05-05
text: Introduced in Senate