Railroad Employee Equity and Fairness Act

Bill: 117-s-545
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Portman, Rob [R-OH]
Introduced: 2021-03-02
Policy area: Labor and Employment
Subjects: Cardiovascular and respiratory health

Emergency medical services and trauma care

Infectious and parasitic diseases

Railroads

Transportation employees

Unemployment
Latest action: action_date: 2021-03-02
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.

Summaries:
action_date: 2021-03-02
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><strong>Railroad Employee Equity and Fairness Act or the REEF Act</strong></p> <p>This bill permanently exempts payments made from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Account from sequestration. Sequestration is a process of automatic, usually across-the-board spending reductions under which budgetary resources are permanently cancelled to enforce specific budget policy goals.</p> <p> Currently, this exemption ends 30 days after the termination of the COVID-19 national emergency period.</p>

tv_txt: II 117th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 545 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 2 (legislative day, March 1), 2021 Mr. Portman (for himself, Ms. Klobuchar , Mr. Brown , and Mrs. Fischer ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget A BILL To permanently exempt payments made from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Account from sequestration under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

1. Short titles This Act may be cited as the Railroad Employee Equity and Fairness Act or the REEF Act . 2. Treatment of payments from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Account (a) Amendments Section 235 of the Continued Assistance to Rail Workers Act of 2020 (subchapter III of title II of division N of Public Law 116–260 ) is amended— (1) in subsection (b)— (A) by striking paragraphs (1) and (2); and (B) by striking subsection (a)— and inserting subsection (a) shall take effect 7 days after the date of enactment of the Continued Assistance to Rail Workers Act of 2020. ; and (2) by striking subsection (c). (b) Applicability The amendments made by subsection (a) shall apply as if enacted on the date before the date on which the national emergency concerning the novel coronavirus disease (COVID–19) outbreak declared by the President on March 13, 2020, under the National Emergencies Act ( 50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) terminates.