A review of the Unemployment Benefits Extension for 2012/13

In our previous posting (A look at the Law/s behind the ObamaGOP Tax Cut) we gave an overview of the White House Blog posting(s) on the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 or H. R. 8.  In this post we will try to skip to Title V "Unemployment Insurance" since this may be the most important to two million unemployed Americans.  Unfortunately, the extension/s do not appear to cover the approximately 3 million unemployed?  As a sidebar, we are guesstimating that approximately 4% of Americans (chronically unemployed) are not covered by the Act.

Title V "UNEMPLOYMENT" starts on page 31 of the Certified PDF and has four sections.  They should read (by our notes):

Sec. 501. Extension of emergency unemployment compensation program.

Sec. 502. Temporary extension of extended benefit provisions.

Sec. 503. Extension of funding for reemployment services and reemployment and

eligibility assessment activities.

Sec. 504. Additional extended unemployment benefits under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

None of the extensions appear to be permanent.  Section 501 is "extended until January 1, 2014" according to the strikeout in the section.  Section 502 is "extended until December 31, 2013" according to the strikeout in the section.  Section 503 is "extended through fiscal year 2014(?)".  Section 504 is "extended through December 31, 2013".

Credit: Government Printing Office, US Government Work, Public Domain

The above image captures most of the first part (pp. 31 and part of 32) of Title V of the Unemployment section of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

As we read through most of Section 501, we seem to find it covered by at least two Public Laws and one USC Code: Public Law 110-252, Public Law 112-96 and 26 U.S.C. 3304.  112-96 and 3304 are cited in other points of Title V.

Er, forgive us for saying so but Public Law 110-252 doesn't appear to have anything to do with unemployment?  Did somebody "sneak in" this section of the Act?  As we scroll through the PDF for 110-252 we notice that it covers entities like the U. S. Marshall's Service, Military Construction (with Iraq in the sidebar), Agricultural Services, International Disaster Assistance ($220m), the "Democracy Fund" (State Dept.), Global Health, Child Survival, HHS, SBA, portions of the "war on drugs", portions of the "war on terror" and many more.  In whole, 110-252 adds at least 94 pp to the Act and millions (billions?) of dollars.  We don't have a problem with some of the provisions and the funding with those, but why did it have to appear in this main part of Title V of H. R. 8?

Public Law 112-96 is more to the point as it is (long) titled "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012".    26 USC 3304 is apparently needed to tie it in with the States and their laws.

Credit: Government Printing Office, US Government Work, Public Domain

Section 502 appears to be more of the "real deal" and applies to some of the 99%.  Three Public Laws appear in the section and mentions 112-96 again.  More real and more to the point appears to be Public Law 110-449.   110-449 is known as the "Unemployment Compensation Act of 2008".  Remember, this section (502) is only extended until December 31, 2013.  While 110-449 appears to be as confusing as 110-252 (previous paragraph) but does extend charitable, food benefits and other forms of assistance throughout the year.

Section 503 appears to be a "placeholder provision" and once again covers 110-252 and 112-96 with funding.

Section 504 appears to apply to special funding for railroad workers' insurance and funding.

That should just about sum up our review of Title V the "Unemployment Provisions" of the "American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012" or H. R. 8.   However, we are still reviewing the meaning and consequences of Section 501 and the reason for its appearance under "Unemployment".