Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2014-01-15 00:00:00

Amends the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (SSA, 2008) to extend emergency unemployment compensation (EUC) payments for eligible individuals to weeks of employment ending on or before April 1, 2014.

Reauthorizes Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3, and Tier-4 of the EUC program for weeks ending after December 29, 2013, but reduces the duration of the first two Tiers, to up to six weeks each.

Amends the Assistance for Unemployed Workers and Struggling Families Act to extend until March 31, 2014, requirements that federal payments to states cover 100% of EUC.

Amends the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008 to exempt weeks of unemployment between enactment of this Act and September 30, 2014, from the prohibition in the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970 (FSEUCA of 1970) against federal matching payments to a state for the first week in an individual's eligibility period for which extended compensation or sharable regular compensation is paid if the state law provides for payment of regular compensation to an individual for his or her first week of otherwise compensable unemployment. (Thus allows temporary federal matching for the first week of extended benefits for states with no waiting period.)

Amends the FSEUCA of 1970 to postpone similarly from December 31, 2013, to March 31, 2014, termination of the period during which a state may determine its "on" and "off" indicators according to specified temporary substitutions in its formula.

 Amends the SSA, 2008 to appropriate funds out of the employment security administration account through the first quarter of FY2015 to assist states in providing reemployment and eligibility assessment activities.

 Amends the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to extend through March 31, 2014, the temporary increase in extended unemployment benefits.

 Makes a change in application of a certain requirement (nonreduction rule) to a state that has: (1) entered a federal-state EUC agreement, under which the federal government would reimburse the state's unemployment compensation agency making EUC payments to individuals who have exhausted all rights to regular unemployment compensation under state or federal law and meet specified other criteria; and (2) enacted a law before December 1, 2013, that, upon taking effect, would violate the nonreduction rule.

 (Under the nonreduction rule such an agreement does not apply with respect to a state whose method for computing regular unemployment compensation under state law has been modified to make the average weekly unemployment compensation benefit paid on or after June 2, 2010, less than what would have been paid before June 2, 2010.)

Declares that the nonreduction rule shall not apply to a state which has enacted a law before December 1, 2013, that, upon taking effect, would violate the nonreduction rule. Allows such a state, however, to enter into a subsequent federal-state EUC agreement on or after enactment of this Act if, taking into account this inapplicability of the nonreduction rule, it would otherwise meet the requirements for an EUC agreement. (Thus allows such a subsequent EUC agreement to permit payment of less than the average weekly unemployment compensation benefit paid on or after June 2, 2010.)

Repeals a provision of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 that reduces the cost-of-living adjustment to the retirement pay of members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act, for any month before an individual reaches retirement age, to reduce the total of the individual's monthly disability insurance benefits and any OASDI benefits based on wages and self-employment income by the total amount of any UC received for that month (but not below zero). (Thus reduces the benefits based on receipt of UC.)

Applies this reduction to any past-due monthly disability insurance benefits for any month in which the individual was entitled both to them and to UC.

Makes the reduction inapplicable if the individual is entitled to UC for a month following a period of:

 trial work, participation in the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program, or participation in any other program designed to encourage an individual entitled to such benefits to work. Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to require the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prepare, and the President to issue, a sequestration order on March 1 for each of FY2015-FY2023, in addition to the reduction in direct spending required under the Act, that reduces certain spending by the uniformed percentage necessary to reduce it for the fiscal year by $1.333 billion. Specifies the spending involved as:

 nonexempt direct spending, not spending for certain Medicare programs, and within the revised nonsecurity category.