{"id":73190,"date":"2025-02-07T07:36:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T07:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/house-democrats-question-bill-restricting-unemployment-benefits\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T07:36:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T07:36:51","slug":"house-democrats-question-bill-restricting-unemployment-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=73190","title":{"rendered":"House Democrats question bill restricting unemployment benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"


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During the House State Government Committee\u2019s meeting on Wednesday, the committee voted to advance HB29<\/a>, a bill introduced by Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, that would make it harder for Alabama workers to continue receiving unemployment insurance payments.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the legislation would raise the number of potential employers an unemployed individual must contact every week to remain eligible for unemployment insurance from three to five and make failures to notify employers about not showing up for an interview or skills test disqualify workers from receiving benefits for five weeks.<\/p>\n

Speaking for Oliver, who is recovering from surgery, Rep. Debbie Wood, R-Valley, told the committee that the legislation is \u201creally a workforce development bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently there\u2019s 127,000 open positions in the state of Alabama,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we have people that are drawing unemployment, with 127,000 open positions.\u201d Wood also cited an estimate that the state spent $1.5 million on unemployment insurance \u201cthat we should not have spent\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n

She then stressed that the bill won\u2019t require people to accept job offers that couldn\u2019t support them, or that are too far away, and said it would help address ghosting: \u201cwhen you go and apply for a job, they make you an offer, and you never call them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only member of the public who spoke on the bill before the committee on Wednesday, Alabama Arise worker policy advocate Dev Wakeley, told them that HB29 was \u201can attempt to implement a work search standard that was explicitly rejected by the legislature just three years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The requirement to reach out to employers every week was added by SB224<\/a> in 2022, a bill introduced by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur. The initial text of the bill called for a five employer requirement just like HB29 would create. But a month after the bill was introduced, the Senate approved an amendment<\/a> Orr introduced that reduced the requirement to three employers and directed the state Department of Labor to \u201cprovide applicants \u2026 with simple instructions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rep. Kelvin Lawrence, D-Hayneville, concurred with Wakeley and questioned whether residents of rural counties could reasonably apply to five employers every week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the town of Hayneville, it\u2019s five legitimate businesses,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cIt\u2019s Family Dollar, it\u2019s Dollar Tree, it\u2019s QV gas station, and it\u2019s Subway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI own the Subway,\u201d he stated. \u201cAnd I guarantee you I get probably 20 people a day coming in asking for a job.\u201d Lawrence also said he believes \u201cthose individuals that really want to work, they\u2019re desperately out there trying to find work,\u201d and the people the bill is targeting are \u201cnot going to work whether you make them do it three times, five times, or ten times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, told the committee she feels HB29 \u201creally penalizes the least of the least.\u201d Referencing her personal faith, Lands said the bill is \u201cnot in the spirit of Jesus\u201d and called it a \u201ccruel\u201d piece of legislation.<\/p>\n

In an interview on Wednesday, Wakeley told APR he doesn\u2019t think the \u201cghosting\u201d Wood pointed to is \u201creally prevalent,\u201d calling it \u201canother instance of this bill trying to find problems where they\u2019<\/span>re not really existing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an antiworker bill, and it\u2019s a pro-employer bill that relies on a mistaken view of the way that people really behave,\u201d he continued. Responding to the points made by Wood about past overspending, Wakeley said overpayments aren\u2019t addressed by denying people eligibility and the bill is creating \u201cunnecessary barriers to a process that lets people see to very basic needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s getting rich off $275 a week,\u201d he quipped, referencing the maximum unemployment benefit rate in Alabama.<\/p>\n

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In the third quarter of 2024, the average weekly benefit was $252.86 and fewer than two-fifths of benefit recipients in the previous 12 months actually \u201cexhausted\u201d the benefits they were eligible for.<\/p>\n

The most recent release<\/a> of the Help Wanted Online data series from the Alabama Department of Labor also shows that the number of unemployed workers in Alabama surpassed the number of active online job ads in December. And according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, the national hire rate remains below recent years at 3.4 percent.<\/p>\n

Near the close of the committee meeting, Wood said the legislature is \u201cresponsible for people\u2019s money\u201d and that is a \u201cbig burden.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur burden is to ensure that we\u2019re spending our money and being fiscally responsible with our money and we\u2019re spending 1.5 million dollars that we shouldn\u2019t spend on claims,\u201d Wood explained.<\/span> \u201cAnd we also need to be helping these individuals that desperately need employees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the concerns of the Democratic representatives on the committee, a majority voted in favor of reporting HB29 favorably to the state House.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the House State Government Committee\u2019s meeting on Wednesday, the committee voted to advance HB29, a bill introduced by Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, that would make it harder for Alabama workers to continue receiving unemployment insurance payments. Specifically, the legislation would raise the number of potential employers an unemployed individual must contact every week to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[33526,34158,11283,6795,37962,13394,37963,594,37964,28370,4112,37965,37968,37969,37966,37967],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-73190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-2025-legislative-session","tag-alabama-arise","tag-benefits","tag-bill","tag-debbie-wood","tag-democrats","tag-dev-wakeley","tag-house","tag-kelvin-lawrence","tag-marilyn-lands","tag-question","tag-rep-kelvin-lawrence","tag-restricting","tag-unemployment","tag-unemployment-benefits","tag-unemployment-insurance"],"yoast_head":"\nHouse Democrats question bill restricting unemployment benefits - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=73190\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"House Democrats question bill restricting unemployment benefits - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During the House State Government Committee\u2019s meeting on Wednesday, the committee voted to advance HB29, a bill introduced by Rep. 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