Federal Legislation You Should Know About

The following updates are provided by Faith Advocates for Jobs, a program of Interfaith Worker Justice

Transportation Bill Will Save Millions of Jobs

Before leaving Washington for the July 4th recess, Congress sent the President a major piece of legislation. The surface transportation bill will save or create millions by authorizing $120 billion in spending for federal highway, rail and transit programs for the next 27 months.

The bill does not raise the existing 18.4 cents-a-gallon gasoline tax or the 24.4 cents-a-gallon diesel tax, but it does allot about $19 billion in transfers from the Treasury.

The highway bill also included a student loan provision that extends the current 3.4 percent interest rate on Stafford loans for one year. The bill will be paid for by changes in pension laws and a restriction on the length of time students can get those loans.

Bring Jobs Home Act

The offshoring of jobs has spread from manufacturing to services and other sectors of our economy, devastating working families and their communities. When the Senate returns from the recess, they will consider the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884). This bill stops tax incentives for companies outsourcing jobs and provide tax credits to those that return jobs to the United States. Call you Senator at 888-659-9401. Tell them to pass the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884).

Unemployment Insurance

According to a new report from National Employment Law Project (NELP), American workers who lose their jobs after July 4 will only have access to jobless aid provided by their states—26 weeks in most cases. They will not be eligible for any federal unemployment support if they run out of state benefits before finding new work.

With all federal unemployment insurance programs scheduled to expire by year’s end, more than 900,000 Americans will exhaust their state benefits during the first three months of 2013 and will be left without any jobless aid. More than two million Americans already receiving federal extended unemployment insurance will face immediate cut-off from the program between Christmas and the new year.

Long-term unemployment remains at near-record levels, fueling concerns that the federal programs are being terminated prematurely. The average unemployed worker is jobless for around 40 weeks—far longer than the 26 weeks of jobless aid offered by most states. Nearly half of all workers who receive state unemployment insurance (47.9 percent) run out of benefits without finding employment.

It takes on average nine months for unemployed workers to find a job. Unless Congress reauthorizes the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, unemployed workers will face an average of three months of joblessness without any benefits.