The US Senate today passed legislation to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act by an overwhelming bi-partisan vote of 93 -4 with 3 not voting. The bill, S 2244, may be found at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113s2244rs/pdf/BILLS-113s2244rs.pdf. The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2014 amends the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 to extend the Terrorism Insurance [...]
In a letter dated July 14, 2014, six senators from both parties signed a letter to Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), reviewing the delayed implementation of several aspects of the SMART Act signed into law in January of 2013. (See attached) Senators signing the letter included Rob Portman (OH), [...]
As of July 1st the state of Connecticut had not submitted a request for waiver of the Benefit Cost Rate (BCR) Add On tax increase to the Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA). Without a waiver, the FUTA will automatically increase Federal Unemployment Tax rates for employers with employees in Connecticut. The waiver request is due under federal [...]
In a surprisingly overwhelming show of support in the Pennsylvania House and Senate, HB 2081 has passed through both houses and the vote today in support of the bill on the floor of the Senate was 46-0 with 4 no votes. The sponsor of the bill, Representative William (Billy) Adolph, who chairs the House Appropriations committee, [...]
On May 19th, Gov. Nathan Deal and State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler announced that the almost $1 billion federal loan used to help pay state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits since 2009 had been repaid. The final payment of $62,490,887.99 was sent to the U.S. Department of Labor on May 14 and the GDOL has received confirmation [...]
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (S 2244) has gathered 16 co-sponsors, including the Chairman (Tim Johnson D-SD) and Ranking Member (Michael Crapo R-ID) of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee of the Senate. See http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c113:./temp/~c113alUTIB The bill is expected to receive a mark up by the committee as early as June this year. [...]
The EXPIRE Act is expected to pass the Senate next week with an expansion of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)included. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden indicated in a statement on the floor of the Senate that “the WOTC can help small businesses hire an even greater number of struggling Americans. First, it’ll do more [...]
Federal law requires that states pay interest on outstanding loan balances under Title XII of the Social Security Act. Payment of interest is a requirement of employers in each state in order to receive full offset credit against the FUTA tax (26 USC 3304(a) (17)) and must be paid from funds other than funds in the [...]
The US Department of Labor released its UI Solvency Report on May 13th, showing the relative solvency of each state UI trust fund in comparison to other states based on US DOL suggested standards. See the link to the report at http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/trustFundSolvReport.pdf Our conclusions based on the data included in the study are alarming with respect [...]
Download Full Report The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce Foundation on May 8th released a “white paper” review of the state’s workforce system with a list of 13 options for reform. Governor McCrory, the North Carolina Workforce Commission, and the North Carolina Department of Commerce have already initiated a series of administrative reforms. The White Paper [...]