Expiring Unemployment Insurance Provisions – Katelin P. Isaacs, Analyst in Income Security, November 22, 2013

“Several key provisions related to extended federal unemployment benefits are temporary and, therefore, scheduled to expire:

• Authorization for the temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08) program is scheduled to expire the week ending on or before January 1, 2014 (i.e., December 28, 2013, in all states except New York State, in which the program ends December 29, 2013).

• The temporary 100% federal financing of the Extended Benefit (EB) program ends December 31, 2013.

• The temporary option for states to use three-year lookbacks as part of their EB triggers expires the week ending on or before December 31, 2013.

Once these federal unemployment provisions expire, only regular, state-financed unemployment benefits from the Unemployment Compensation (UC) program will generally be available. In most states, UC provides up to 26 weeks of benefits.This report describes the consequences of these expirations for the financing and availability of unemployment benefits in states. This report also summarizes legislative proposals to extend these expiring provisions. Among other provisions, H.R. 2821, the American Jobs Act of 2013, would extend these temporary unemployment insurance provisions for two additional years (i.e., through December 2015). H.R. 3546, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2013, would extend the expiring unemployment insurance provisions for an additional year (i.e., through December 2014).”