Des Moines, Iowa — Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate have voted to reduce the maximum number of weeks Iowans may receive unemployment benefits by 10 weeks — from about half a year today down to 16 weeks.
Senate Republicans favor an additional step — a one-week delay in delivery of the first unemployment check for a laid off worker. Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, says Iowa would join at least 39 other states that have a one-week waiting period for unemployment benefits.
Schultz says Senate Republicans are going to stand firm and insist that this be part of the final bill.
Governor Kim Reynolds has said these two moves will address Iowa’s workforce shortage by getting unemployed Iowans back to work more quickly. Representative Michael Bousselot of Ankeny is the Republican who led House debate of their plan to cut the number of weeks of unemployment benefits.
Bousselot says cutting jobless benefits to a maximum of 16 weeks ensures the stability of Iowa’s Unemployment Trust Fund for workers, like a waitress he met in Ankeny.
Representative Chris Hall, a Democrat from Sioux City, says the state needs to attract more residents rather than come up with more punitive policies.
House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights says the plan punishes people who’ve been fired through no fault of their own.
Democrats say the state should be boosting investments in child care and affordable housing to address the workforce crisis. Representative Timi Brown-Powers, a Democrat from Waterloo, says there’s a workforce shortage here because Iowa is a low-wage state.
Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, says these moves aren’t Iowa Nice and he got into a brief shouting match with Republicans in the Senate Wednesday night.
During her Condition of the State address in January, Reynolds said unemployment benefits had become a hammock for some and contributes to Iowa’s labor shortage.
