[104th Congress Public Law 251]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
<DOC>
[DOCID: f:publ251.104]
Public Law 104-251
104th Congress
An Act
To amend the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to reduce the waiting
period for benefits payable under that Act, and for other
purposes. <<NOTE: Oct. 9, 1996 - [H.R. 2594]>>
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: Railroad
Unemployment Insurance Amendments Act of 1996.>>
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Railroad Unemployment Insurance
Amendments Act of 1996''. <<NOTE: 45 USC 367 note.>>
SEC. 2. WAITING PERIOD FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS.
Subparagraph (A) of section 2(a)(1) of the Railroad Unemployment
Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(a)(1)(A)) is amended to read as follows:
``(A) Payment of Unemployment Benefits.--
``(i) Generally.--Except as otherwise provided in this
subparagraph, benefits shall be payable to any qualified
employee for each day of unemployment in excess of 4 during any
registration period within a period of continuing unemployment.
``(ii) Waiting period for first registration period.--
Benefits shall be payable to any qualified employee for each day
of unemployment in excess of 7 during that employee's first
registration period in a period of continuing unemployment if
such period of continuing unemployment is the employee's initial
period of continuing unemployment commencing in the benefit
year.
``(iii) Strikes.--
``(I) Initial 14-day waiting period.--If the Board
finds that a qualified employee has a period of
continuing unemployment that includes days of
unemployment due to a stoppage of work because of a
strike in the establishment, premises, or enterprise at
which such employee was last employed, no benefits shall
be payable for such
employee's first 14 days of unemployment due to such
stoppage of work.
``(II) Subsequent days of unemployment.--For
subsequent days of unemployment due to the same stoppage
of work, benefits shall be payable as provided in clause
(i) of this subparagraph.
``(III) Subsequent periods of continuing
unemployment.--If such period of continuing unemployment
ends by reason of clause (v) but the stoppage of work
continues, the waiting period established in clause (ii)
shall apply to the employee's first registration period
in a new period of continuing unemployment based upon
the same stoppage of work.
``(iv) Definition of period of continuing unemployment.--
Except as limited by clause (v), for the purposes of this
subparagraph, the term `period of continuing unemployment'
means--
``(I) a single registration period that includes
more than 4 days of unemployment;
``(II) a series of consecutive registration periods,
each of which includes more than 4 days of unemployment;
or
``(III) a series of successive registration periods,
each of which includes more than 4 days of unemployment,
if each succeeding registration period begins within 15
days after the last day of the immediately preceding
registration period.
``(v) Special rule regarding end of period.--For purposes of
applying clause (ii), a period of continuing unemployment ends
when an employee exhausts rights to unemployment benefits under
subsection (c) of this section.
``(vi) Limit on amount of benefits.--No benefits shall be
payable to an otherwise eligible employee for any day of
unemployment in a registration period where the total amount of
the remuneration (as defined in section 1(j)) payable or
accruing to him for days within such registration period exceeds
the amount of the base year monthly compensation base. For
purposes of the preceding sentence, an employee's remuneration
shall be deemed to include the gross amount of any remuneration
that would have become payable to that employee but did not
become payable because that employee was not ready or willing to
perform suitable work available to that employee on any day
within such registration period.''.
SEC. 3. WAITING PERIOD FOR SICKNESS BENEFITS.
Subparagraph (B) of section 2(a)(1) of the Railroad Unemployment
Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(a)(1)(B)) is amended to read as follows:
``(B) Payment of Sickness Benefits.--
``(i) Generally.--Except as otherwise provided in this
subparagraph, benefits shall be payable to any qualified
employee for each day of sickness after the 4th consecutive day
of sickness in a period of continuing sickness but excluding 4
days of sickness in any registration period in such period of
continuing sickness.
``(ii) Waiting period for first registration period.--
Benefits shall be payable to any qualified employee for each day
of sickness in excess of 7 during that employee's first
registration period in a period of continuing sickness if such
period of continuing sickness is the employee's initial period
of continuing sickness commencing in the benefit year. For the
purposes of this clause, the first registration period in a
period of continuing sickness is that registration period that
first begins with 4 consecutive days of sickness and includes
more than 4 days of sickness.
``(iii) Definition of period of continuing sickness.--For
the purposes of this subparagraph, a period of continuing
sickness means--
``(I) a period of consecutive days of sickness,
whether from 1 or more causes; or
``(II) a period of successive days of sickness due
to a single cause without interruption of more than 90
consecutive days which are not days of sickness.
``(iv) Special rule regarding end of period.--For purposes
of applying clause (ii), a period of continuing sickness ends
when an employee exhausts rights to sickness benefits under
subsection (c) of this section.''.
SEC. 4. MAXIMUM DAILY BENEFIT RATE.
Paragraph (3) of section 2(a) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance
Act (45 U.S.C. 352(a)(3)) is amended to read as follows:
``(3) The maximum daily benefit rate computed by the Board under
section 12(r)(2) shall be the product of the monthly compensation base,
as computed under section 1(i)(2) for the base year immediately
preceding the beginning of the benefit year, multiplied by 5 percent. If
the maximum daily benefit rate so computed is not a multiple of $1, it
shall be rounded down to the nearest multiple of $1.''.
SEC. 5. MAXIMUM NUMBER OF DAYS FOR BENEFITS.
(a) In General.--Subsection (c) of section 2 of the Railroad
Unemployment Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(c)) is amended to read as
follows:
``(c) Maximum Number of Days for Benefits.--
``(1) Normal benefits.--
``(A) Generally.--The maximum number of days of
unemployment within a benefit year for which benefits
may be paid to an employee shall be 130, and the maximum
number of days of sickness within a benefit year for
which benefits may be paid to an employee shall be 130.
``(B) Limitation.--The total amount of benefits that
may be paid to an employee for days of unemployment
within a benefit year shall in no case exceed the
employee's compensation in the base year; and the total
amount of benefits that may be paid to an employee for
days of sickness within a benefit year shall in no case
exceed the employee's compensation in the base year,
except that notwithstanding section 1(i), in determining
the employee's compensation in the base year for the
purpose of this sentence, any money remuneration paid to
the employee for services rendered as an employee shall
be taken into account that is not in excess of an amount
that bears the same ratio to $775 as the monthly
compensation base for that year as computed under
section 1(i) bears to $600.
``(2) Extended benefits.--
``(A) Generally.--With respect to an employee who
has 10 or more years of service as defined in section
1(f) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, who did not
voluntarily retire and (in a case involving exhaustion
of rights to normal benefits for days of unemployment)
did not
voluntarily leave work without good cause, and who had
current rights to normal benefits for days of
unemployment or days of sickness in a benefit year but
has exhausted such rights, the benefit year in which
such rights are exhausted shall be deemed not to be
ended until the last day of the extended benefit period
determined under this paragraph, and extended
unemployment benefits or extended sickness benefits
(depending on the type of normal benefit rights
exhausted) may be paid for not more than 65 days of
unemployment or 65 days of sickness within such extended
benefit period.
``(B) Beginning date.--An employee's extended
benefit period shall begin on the employee's first day
of unemployment or first day of sickness, as the case
may be, following the day on which the employee exhausts
the employee's then current rights to normal benefits
for days of unemployment or days of sickness and shall
continue for 7 consecutive 14-day periods, each of which
shall constitute a registration period, but no such
extended benefit period shall extend beyond the
beginning of the first registration period in a benefit
year in which the employee is again qualified for
benefits in accordance with section 3 on the basis of
compensation earned after the first of such consecutive
14-day periods has begun.
``(C) Termination when employee reaches age of 65.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of this paragraph,
an extended benefit period for sickness benefits shall
terminate on the day next preceding the date on which
the employee attains age 65, except that it may continue
for the purpose of paying benefits for days of
unemployment.
``(3) Accelerated benefits.--
``(A) General rule.--With respect to an employee who
has 10 or more years of service as defined in section
1(f) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, who did not
voluntarily retire, and (in a case involving
unemployment benefits) did not voluntarily leave work
without good cause, who has 14 or more consecutive days
of unemployment, or 14 or more consecutive days of
sickness, and who is not a qualified employee with
respect to the general benefit year current when such
unemployment or sickness commences but is or becomes a
qualified employee for the next succeeding general
benefit year, such succeeding general benefit year
shall, in that employee's case, begin on the first day
of the month in which such unemployment or sickness
commences.
``(B) Exception.--In the case of a succeeding
benefit year beginning in accordance with subparagraph
(A) by reason of sickness, such sentence shall not
operate to
permit the payment of benefits in the period provided
for in such sentence for any day of sickness beginning
with the date on which the employee attains age 65, and
continuing through the day preceding the first day of
the next succeeding general benefit year.
``(C) Determination of age.--For the purposes of
this subsection, the Board may rely on evidence of age
available in its records and files at the time
determinations of age are made.''.
(b) Repeal of Deadwood Provision.--Section 2(h) of the Railroad
Unemployment Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 352(h)) is repealed.
(c) Repeal of Expired Provision.--Section 17 of the Railroad
Unemployment Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. 368), relating to payment of
supplemental unemployment benefits, is repealed.
SEC. 6. <<NOTE: 45 USC 352 note.>> EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the date of the
enactment of this Act.
Approved October 9, 1996.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--H.R. 2594:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOUSE REPORTS: No. 104-525 (Comm. on Transportation and Infrastructure).
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 142 (1996):
Sept. 18, considered and passed House.
Sept. 25, considered and passed Senate.
WEEKLY COMPILATION OF PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS, Vol. 32 (1996):
Oct. 9, Presidential statement.
<all>