SLS 21RS-1905 ORIGINAL
2021 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 187
BY SENATOR REESE
UNEMPLOYMENT COMP. Requests the secretary of the Louisiana Workforce
Commission to submit a written report to Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial
Relations on a plan to implement and administer changes to the unemployment insurance
program.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To urge and request the secretary of the Louisiana Workforce Commission to submit a
3 written report to the Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations not later
4 than October 31, 2021, on a plan to implement and administer changes to the
5 unemployment insurance program proposed in Senate Bill 225 of the 2021 Regular
6 Session of the Legislature.
7 WHEREAS, unemployment compensation is a federal-state partnership based upon
8 federal law, but administered by each state in accordance with the laws of that state; and
9 WHEREAS, the overall public policy provides for taxes to be collected from an
10 employer on a base amount of wages the employer pays his employees, for those taxes to
11 be paid into a system and made available to fund income support to a working person who
12 loses his job through no fault of his own, and for the perimeters of the program to make it
13 likely that the income support provided to the worker will be used to help sustain consumer
14 demand in local areas, particularly during economic downturns; and
15 WHEREAS, each state's primary role of the federal-state partnership is to directly
16 administer the program; accept and adjudicate benefit claims and ensure timely payment of
17 benefits to qualified and eligible claimants; and establish the taxable wage base and assess
18 and collect those taxes on covered employment from employers; and
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SLS 21RS-1905 ORIGINAL
1 WHEREAS, Chapter 11 of Title 23 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950
2 provides relative to the operation and administration of the state's unemployment insurance
3 program; and
4 WHEREAS, Senate Bill 225 of the 2021 Regular Session of the Legislature would
5 have provided for increases to a claimant's benefits in two significant ways; and
6 WHEREAS, first, the legislation provided that on the same amount of base-period
7 wages, a qualified claimant would have been eligible for a proposed one-twelfth to one-
8 twentieth of the average of his base-period wages, depending on the state's average
9 unemployment rate, instead of present law's limitation of one twenty-fifth of the average of
10 the claimant's base period wages; and
11 WHEREAS, second, the legislation increased the maximum weekly benefit amount
12 that any qualified claimant could have received by thirty dollars per week in years that
13 Procedures 1, 2, and 3 are applicable, and sixteen dollars per week in years that Procedure
14 4 is applicable; and
15 WHEREAS, Senate Bill 225 also made changes to the number of weeks that a
16 claimant could claim his maximum amount of benefits depending on the state's average
17 unemployment rate so that when the rate was above nine percent, a claimant would be
18 eligible for a maximum of one-twentieth of the average of his base period wages per week
19 for up to twenty weeks and when the rate is at or below five and one-half percent, a claimant
20 would be eligible for a maximum of one-twelfth of the average of his base period wages per
21 week for twelve weeks; and
22 WHEREAS, to further help the system accomplish its goals, the bill created an
23 extended unemployment insurance program for claimants enrolled and participating in
24 approved training that provided up to eight additional weeks of benefits; and
25 WHEREAS, several states have implemented unemployment insurance programs
26 similar to the proposed changes in Senate Bill 225, and those programs have yielded positive
27 results, including workforce attachment and solvency of the state's unemployment trust fund.
28 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
29 does hereby urge and request the secretary of the Louisiana Workforce Commission to
30 submit a written report to the Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations, and as
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SLS 21RS-1905 ORIGINAL
1 required by R.S. 24:771 and 772, not later than October 31, 2021, on a plan to implement
2 and administer changes to the unemployment insurance program proposed by Senate Bill
3 225 of the 2021 Regular Session of the Legislature.
4 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the plan shall include all of the following:
5 (1) An outline of administrative steps necessary to implement the provisions of
6 Senate Bill 225.
7 (2) Specific challenges to implementation and strategies to address those challenges.
8 (3) Resources required for implementation and possible sources of funding, including
9 funding from the administrative grant, Reed Act, CARES, or other federal funding and the
10 commission's penalty and interest fund.
11 (4) A timeline for implementation.
12 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
13 secretary of the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Michelle Ridge.
DIGEST
SR 187 Original 2021 Regular Session Reese
Requests the secretary of the La. Workforce Commission to submit a written report to the
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations and the David R. Poynter Library not
later than October 31, 2021, on a plan to implement and administer changes to the
unemployment insurance program proposed by S.B. 225 of the 2021 R.S.
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