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Committee Gives Due‑Pass to Bill Letting Secretary Waive One‑Week Waiting Period for Benefits During Emergencies
Summary
Committee gave a due‑pass recommendation to House Bill 249, which would allow the Secretary of Workforce Solutions to waive the one‑week waiting period for unemployment benefits when a federal or state emergency or disaster is declared; vote recorded as 3‑2‑0 in committee.
House Bill 249 would authorize the Secretary of the Department of Workforce Solutions to waive the standard one‑week waiting period for unemployment insurance benefits when a federal or state emergency or disaster is declared, sponsors said.
The proposal is intended to accelerate benefit access for workers affected by emergencies such as fires and floods, committee testimony said.
Leonardo Casaneda, identified himself as a senior policy adviser with the Department of Workforce Solutions, told the committee the department encountered the issue while responding to the Ruidoso fires and recent floods. "We came across this issue, responding to the Ruidoso fires, the floods that we've had this summer," Casaneda said, and called the waiting period "unfair" in the context of disaster response.
A committee member moved the bill. The record shows the committee registered a 3‑2‑0 vote and gave the bill a due pass recommendation. The transcript does not record a roll‑call list of member votes by name in the excerpt; the committee recorded the tally as 3 yes, 2 no, 0 abstentions for the due pass.
No fund appropriations or implementation details were discussed in the excerpt provided. The bill text or any required administrative rule changes were not read into the record during the portion of the hearing in the transcript.
