October 23—Today, NELP applauds the introduction of comprehensive unemployment insurance (UI) reform legislation from Senators Ron Wyden and Michael Bennet, now with two new original cosponsors—Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Senators Wyden and Bennet have been revising and updating this NELP-supported legislation for years. With rising public concern around potential AI-driven mass unemployment, this is a timely and thoughtful update to this critical legislation.
The bill codifies recommendations from bipartisan commissions to improve UI as far back as 1980 and provides critical fixes and improvements to the UI system, our nation’s most important countercyclical safety net.
“Our current unemployment insurance system is failing workers. It does not cover enough people, or provide them enough money, nor does it last long enough for them to find a good replacement job. Despite increasing unemployment, initial claims for UI benefits have been coming in at less than 200,000 for several weeks in a row—a figure not seen since the 1960s when the workforce was less than half its current size,” said Michele Evermore, Senior Director of Economic Security and Worker Transitions at NELP. “If we fall into an economic downturn with the current broken system, UI programs across the country will not be able to pump enough money back into the system to prevent an economic pain spiral. Millions will fall through the cracks, with workers of color among the hardest hit—compounding existing inequalities and an unemployment rate for Black workers that is already two times higher than that of white workers. This must-pass bill meets the current moment perfectly.”
