JOBS Act of 2011
Latest action. Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 48.
Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Services Act of 2011 or JOBS Act of 2011 - Title I: Reforms of Unemployment Compensation to Promote Work and Job Creation - (Sec. 101) Amends title III (Grants to States for Unemployment Compensation Administration) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to require state unemployment compensation (UC) laws to require, as a condition of eligibility for regular compensation for any week, that an UC claimant be able to work, available to work, and actively seeking work.
(Sec. 102) Requires a claimant to meet minimum educational requirements, that is, to: (1) have earned a high school diploma, (2) have earned the General Educational Development (GED) credential or other state-recognized equivalent (including by meeting recognized alternative standards for individuals with disabilities), or (3) be enrolled and making satisfactory progress in classes leading to satisfaction of the latter requirement.
Authorizes waiver of such requirements for an individual by a state agency if they would be unduly burdensome.
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to revise the requirement that the Secretary of Labor approve any state law prohibiting denial of compensation to an individual for any week in which the individual is in training with the approval of the state agency (or because of the application, to any such week in training, of state law relating to availability for work, active search for work, or refusal to accept work). Refers instead to any week in which the individual is enrolled and making satisfactory progress in education or, as under current law, training which has been previously approved by the state agency.
(Sec. 103) Authorizes the Secretary to enter into agreements with states to allow them to conduct demonstration projects to test and evaluate measures designed to: (1) expedite the reemployment of individuals who establish initial eligibility for UC under state law, or (2) improve the effectiveness of a state in carrying out its state law with respect to reemployment.
(Sec. 104) Amends SSA title XII (Repayment by States of Advances to State Unemployment Funds) to repeal the requirement that a state meet certain funding goals if no payment of interest shall be required with respect to any advances made to it out of the federal unemployment account during any calendar year. (Thus repeals the requirement for higher state taxes.)
The summary continues for 10 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House amended, Part I" stage on May 23, 2011. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on May 23, 2011: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 48.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 112th Congress (2011-12), 283 of the 10,618 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
DAVE CAMP (R-MI) introduced it on May 5, 2011, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 3 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on May 5, 2011, 5654 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 5636 days ago, on May 23, 2011.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 112th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2013 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers