BRIDGE for Workers Act

Building on Reemployment Improvements to Deliver Good Employment for Workers Act or the BRIDGE for Workers Act

This bill extends eligibility for reemployment services to all individuals claiming unemployment compensation. Currently, only unemployment claimants that are identified as likely to exhaust their regular unemployment compensation are eligible for such reemployment services.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2872 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2872

 To amend title III of the Social Security Act to extend reemployment 
services and eligibility assessments to all claimants for unemployment 
                   benefits, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 14, 2019

   Mr. Coons (for himself, Mr. Isakson, Mr. Kaine, and Mr. Portman) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                          Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title III of the Social Security Act to extend reemployment 
services and eligibility assessments to all claimants for unemployment 
                   benefits, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Building on Reemployment 
Improvements to Deliver Good Employment for Workers Act'' or the 
``BRIDGE for Workers Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-123) 
        improved program accountability for effectively serving 
        unemployed workers and made a significant new investment in 
        reemployment services.
            (2) Research shows the longer workers are out of work, the 
        harder it can be to maintain their skills, professional 
        network, and stable home life.
            (3) Reemployment services give workers who might otherwise 
        struggle to find new jobs the tools that they need to get back 
        to work--such as individualized career counseling and job 
        search help as well as local labor market information--and they 
        can serve as an entry point to the workforce development 
        system.
            (4) Reemployment services have been demonstrated to reduce 
        the number of weeks that program participants receive 
        unemployment benefits by improving their employment outcomes, 
        including earnings.
            (5) Unemployment benefits replace less than half of working 
        income, on average, so workers who find new jobs quickly suffer 
        less financial hardship.
            (6) Combining targeted reemployment services with 
        unemployment benefits helps keep people attached to the labor 
        force who might otherwise become discouraged and drop out.
            (7) The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, over 
        time, investments in reemployment services create savings for 
        taxpayers and unemployment trust funds by reducing spending on 
        unemployment benefits.
            (8) Many different types of workers can benefit from 
        reemployment services. Reemployment services should be used to 
        shorten the duration of unemployment for workers even if they 
        are not projected to fully exhaust their unemployment benefits.

SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY FOR REEMPLOYMENT SERVICES.

    Section 306(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 506(a)) is 
amended--
            (1) by striking ``individuals referred to reemployment 
        services as described in section 303(j)'' and inserting 
        ``claimants for unemployment compensation, including claimants 
        referred to reemployment services as described in section 
        303(j),''; and
            (2) by striking ``such individuals'' and inserting ``such 
        claimants''.
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