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91_HR0699ham001
LRB9113533CBcbam01
1 AMENDMENT TO HOUSE RESOLUTION 699
2 AMENDMENT NO. . Amend House Resolution 699 by
3 replacing lines 2 through 32 on page 1 and lines 1 through 26
4 on page 2 with the following:
5 "WHEREAS, The Unemployment Insurance Act was first passed
6 in 1937 and has been amended from time to time thereafter;
7 and
8 WHEREAS, The State public policy underlying the
9 Unemployment Insurance Act is ". . . to lessen the menace to
10 the health, safety and morals of the people of Illinois, and
11 to encourage stabilization of employment", thus making
12 necessary "compulsory unemployment insurance upon a statewide
13 scale providing for the setting aside of reserves during
14 periods of employment to be used to pay benefits during
15 periods of unemployment"; and
16 WHEREAS, There have been rapid changes in the Illinois
17 workforce in recent years, including: between 1970 and 1990,
18 twice as many women entered the workforce as did men; between
19 1969 and 1998 the percentage of women in the workforce with a
20 child under age 3 increased from 23% to 63%; many
21 newly-created jobs are low-paying and unstable service sector
22 jobs; many other newly-created jobs are seasonal or
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1 temporary; and over 300,000 former recipients of welfare have
2 been added to the ranks of the workforce; and
3 WHEREAS, During recent years fewer than 40% of unemployed
4 workers, as counted by the Illinois Department of Employment
5 Security, received unemployment insurance benefits in
6 Illinois at any given time; fewer than 30% of unemployed
7 women received unemployment insurance benefits at any given
8 time; and, according to at least one study, only 11% of the
9 women who had received welfare in the previous 24 months
10 received any unemployment insurance upon losing a job; and
11 WHEREAS, There is a need to determine whether the
12 unemployment insurance program as currently structured is
13 serving the public policy goals it is designed to meet, given
14 the current workforce and economy in Illinois, particularly
15 with respect to female workers, new workers, seasonal
16 workers, workers who are parents or who have other pressing
17 family or medical issues that prevent them from working, and
18 workers who are new parents on leave under the federal Family
19 and Medical Leave Act; and
20 WHEREAS, The ability of the unemployment insurance
21 program to provide benefits to workers depends on the
22 solvency of the unemployment trust fund, and that fund's
23 current solvency is due not only to taxes on employers but
24 also to benefit cuts absorbed by workers during the 1980's
25 specifically for the purpose of improving the solvency of the
26 fund; and
27 WHEREAS, The Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is funded
28 by taxes paid by employers; and
29 WHEREAS, The Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund ended with
30 a balance of over $2 billion at the end of 1999; and
31 WHEREAS, Benefits to unemployed workers could be paid for
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1 nearly 20 months without a single tax dollar being paid into
2 the Trust Fund; and
3 WHEREAS, Sound public policy calls for a Trust Fund of
4 adequate size to pay benefits for unemployed workers without
5 unnecessarily draining away resources from employers that
6 could be better utilized in the Illinois economy; therefore
7 be it
8 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
9 NINETY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
10 there be created a subcommittee on unemployment insurance of
11 the House Committee on Labor and Commerce; and be it further
12 RESOLVED, That the subcommittee be directed to conduct
13 hearings throughout the State during the year 2000,
14 accumulate data and information important to employees and
15 employers regarding unemployment insurance, and develop
16 recommendations to be submitted to the full House Labor and
17 Commerce Committee, the Speaker of the House, and the
18 Minority Leader of the House by December 1, 2000.".