Rep. Mike Hanna (D-Clinton) said House Democrats earlier today successfully led an effort to halt voting on a Republican bill that would reduce unemployment compensation benefits and eligibility for out-of-work Pennsylvanians and force the unemployed to pay the cost to restore the state's strained unemployment compensation fund.
By a vote of 79-122, the House defeated the measure-- House Bill 916 (Perry-R-Cumberland) on second consideration that would make a number of changes to the state's UC law, including making it harder for workers to qualify for benefits, cut benefits for unemployed workers who do qualify and slow the growth of benefits for future UC claimants.
"Pennsylvanians who lose their jobs through no fault of their own rely on unemployment compensation benefits to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads while they look for other work," Rep. Hanna said. "This proposal by House Republicans would have made it worse for them, and I am proud that we were able to defeat this bill."
Rep. Hanna, who serves as House Democratic Whip, said Pennsylvania's Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund has borrowed $3.8 billion from the federal government since 2009 in order to pay the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians who lost their jobs as a result of the recession.
"However, this fund is not broke because of people who are unemployed," Rep. Hanna said. "Instead, Pennsylvania has failed to modernize the taxable wage base on which employers are taxed or lift arbitrary caps placed on the fund in the 1980s to limit the amount of money that could be generated for it to only $544 million."
Pennsylvania's UC Fund is not part of the General Fund. It pays up to 26 weeks of regular benefits before any federally-funded extensions kick in. Federal extensions have no bearing on its solvency.
The average weekly benefit for an unemployed person is about $315. Rep. Hanna said House Bill 916 would decrease those benefits to $277 per week in 2013 and reduce it further in following years by changing various calculations used to determine weekly benefit rates. The bill also would change formulas used to determine financial eligibility so that low-wage workers would have a harder time even qualifying for benefits when they are laid off.
"House Bill 916 would have done nothing more than penalize workers and attack those who are unemployed through no fault of their own," Rep. Hanna said.
"House Republicans again and again want to break the backs of working Pennsylvanians and middle-class families," he added. "From their proposed state budget to House Bill 916 and more, Republicans are introducing and passing legislation that would hurt working people during tough economic times."
The bill was defeated on second consideration, when amendments are normally added.
