BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2364
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 14, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                 AB 2364 (Nava) - As Introduced:  February 19, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                               
          InsuranceVote:12-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill modifies eligibility in California's Unemployment  
          Insurance (UI) program to ensure receipt of federal American  
          Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding and makes several  
          other minor changes. Specifically, this bill: 

          1)Broadens the definition of family for the purposes of a UI  
            good cause exemption related to domestic violence. This bill  
            eliminates the word "children" and replaces it with "family"  
            in order to address federal Department of Labor (DOL) concern  
            about the narrowness of current state law. 

          2)Requires the Employment Development Department (EDD) to notify  
            claimants about the method of benefit computation. 

          3)Reduces from three years to one year the period during which a  
            claimant may cash a UI benefit check. 

          4)Eliminates obsolete references to the Leisure Sharing program,  
            which is no longer operational. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)No direct fiscal impact to EDD to administer changes made in  
            this bill. 

          2)Specified conforming changes, per federal DOL guidance, will  
            ensure the receipt of $559 million in federal ARRA stimulus  
            funds. 

           COMMENTS  








                                                                  AB 2364
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           Rationale.  AB 23 X3 (Coto), Chapter 22, Statutes of 2009  
          conformed emergency UI eligibility and benefits to ARRA  
          requirements. AB 23 X3 was designed to enable a one-time  
          increase of $847 million in federal funds into the UI Trust  
          Fund. AB 2364 makes additional changes to UI laws to follow  
          federal guidance related to the receipt of $559 million of the  
          $847 million in funds available to California. 

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081