The Unemployment Compensation Law, in general, makes persons who have become unemployed and comply with certain requirements eligible for benefits from the Unemployment Compensation Fund in an amount based on the person's previous wages for employment. (Chapter 612 of NRS) Existing law provides for the payment of extended unemployment benefits to a person who has exhausted his or her regular unemployment benefits and who meets certain eligibility requirements during an extended benefit period. (NRS 612.377, 612.3774) The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 requires the President of the United States to issue an order triggering certain automatic spending reductions, known as sequestration, if certain budgetary goals have not been met. (Pub. L. No. 99-177, as amended) While certain federal payments relating to unemployment compensation are exempt from sequestration, federal payments to a state for the federal share of extended unemployment benefits are not exempt. (2 U.S.C. § 906(i)(1)) Existing federal law authorizes a state to reduce each weekly payment of extended unemployment benefits for any week of unemployment during any period in which federal payments to the state are reduced under a sequestration order by a percentage not to exceed the percentage by which the federal payment to the state is to be reduced for the week as a result of the order. (2 U.S.C. § 906(i)(2)) Section 2 of this bill requires that the weekly extended benefit amount payable to a person be reduced for any week during a period in which federal payments to this State are reduced as a result of sequestration by a percentage equal to the percentage of the reduction in the federal payment. Section 3 of this bill requires that the total extended benefit amount payable to a person for a benefit year be reduced by an amount equal to the aggregate of the reductions made to the person's weekly extended benefit amounts pursuant to section 2. Section 1 of this bill makes a conforming change to update an internal reference renumbered by section 3. The United States Department of Labor has issued guidance concerning the amendment of state law to provide for reductions to extended unemployment benefits due to sequestration. The guidance specifies that a state which provides for such reductions is required to provide notice to a claimant and an opportunity to appeal the calculation of the amounts. The guidance additionally provides that the required notice should inform claimants that an appeal of the sequestration reduction itself will not succeed, as sequestration is mandated by federal law. (U.S. Dept. of Labor UIPL 7-24 (2024)) Section 2 requires the Administrator of the Employment Security Division of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation to provide a notice containing certain information to any person whose weekly extended benefit amount has been reduced as a result of sequestration. Section 2 also authorizes such a person to appeal the calculation of the amount of the reduced weekly extended benefit amount. Under section 2, such an appeal is limited to the calculation of the amount of the reduced weekly benefit amount and is prohibited from addressing the reduction itself.

Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 612.377, 612.3776, 612.378