Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Unemployment Insurance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DFL: Unemployment insurance for hourly school workers restored, GOP push to repeal called "cruel"
Summary
DFL lawmakers defended a recent expansion of unemployment insurance eligibility to hourly school workers, saying the change reduced staff shortages and cost less than expected; they accused Republicans of trying to roll back the benefit.
A group of DFL lawmakers said an expansion of unemployment insurance eligibility for hourly school workers has been “life changing” for bus drivers, paras and others who feed and educate children — and they accused House Republicans of pushing to revoke that access.
Representative Grama Greenman, who identified herself as a Minneapolis lawmaker, said the change removed a long-standing exclusion and has been in effect for about three years. “These are benefits that for 80 years most other employees have had access to,” she said, adding that the policy has helped address staffing shortages: “We have seen it in the data. We have heard from workers and we have also seen that when workers who make up on average $17 an hour have access to unemployment insurance to that economic security, they come back to these jobs.”
Greenman noted the program cost less than initial 2023 estimates. “This cost a third less than what we had budgeted in 2023 when we thought one year was gonna cost a hundred and $38,000,000,” she said. She also cited a roll-call vote from two days earlier that she described as “a 33 to 0 vote to fund it.”
DFL speakers framed the GOP push to rescind eligibility as part of a broader effort to remove worker protections. “For our most vulnerable neighbor…taking away worker protections, taking away access to health care, taking away access to time to care,” Greenman said. She and other DFL members urged the House to preserve the eligibility change and its funding.
