	Unemployment Compensation and Exhaustion of Benefits

The cornerstone of an unemployed worker's income support is the joint federal-state Unemployment Compensation (UC) program, which may provide income support through the payment of UC benefits. In response to economic recessions, the federal government sometimes has augmented the regular UC benefit with both permanent (the Extended Benefit program) and temporary extensions (including the Emergency Unemployment Compensation of 2008 program) of the duration of unemployment benefits. 111-5 , also known as ARRA or the 2009 stimulus package, signed into law on February 17, 2009) contained several provisions affecting EB. 111-312

Beginning on December 17, 2011, P.L. P.L. Table A-1 in the Appendix briefly summarizes these temporary programs as well as the permanently authorized EB program. Table A-4 provides information on the EUC08 program benefits and triggers. Generally, this debate has examined the efficacy of using the IUR or TUR as a trigger for extending unemployment benefits. Using the Insured Unemployment Rate Versus Total Unemployment Rate

The Federal-State Extended Benefit Program, created by P.L. 110-252 ). 110-449 and then again in P.L. Table A-5 in the Appendix provides information on the timing of the recessions, changes in unemployment of at least 1 million compared with same month in the previous year, and federal enactment of the temporary extensions of benefits. Congressional Interest in "Paying for Temporary Benefits"

		Increases in Revenues or Decreases in Expenditures Related to Temporary Unemployment Benefit Legislation

Debate in Congress has included substantial interest in whether benefit extension legislation should include measures to "pay for" the proposals and be subject to House and Senate PAYGO requirements or whether these extensions should be considered "emergency" measures and exempt from the PAYGO requirements. With the exceptions of P.L. 111-92 , P.L. 112-78 , and P.L. The second column lists all decreases in federal expenditures or increases in federal tax revenues that are related to unemployment benefits within these laws. P.L. P.L. P.L.
This report describes the history of temporary federal extensions to unemployment benefits from 1980 to the present. Among these extensions is the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08) program created by P.L. 110-252 (amended by P.L. 110-449, P.L. 111-5, P.L. 111-92, P.L. 111-118, P.L. 111-144, P.L. 111-157, P.L. 111-205, P.L. 111-312, P.L. 112-78, P.L. 112-96, and P.L. 112-240).
This report contains five sections. The first section provides background information on unemployment compensation (UC) benefits. It also provides a brief summary of UC benefit exhaustion and how exhaustion rates are related to the business cycle.
The second section provides the definition of a recession as well as the determination process for declaring a recession. It also provides information on the timing of all recessions since 1980.
The third section summarizes the legislative history of federal extensions of unemployment benefits. It includes information on the permanently authorized Extended Benefit (EB) program as well as information on temporary unemployment benefit extensions. It also includes a brief discussion on the role of extended unemployment benefits as part of an economic stimulus package.
The fourth section provides figures examining the timing of recessions and statistics that may be considered for extending unemployment benefits.
The fifth section briefly discusses previous methods for financing these temporary programs. In particular, it attempts to identify provisions in temporary extension legislation that may have led to increases in revenue or decreases in spending related to unemployment benefits.