The state Senate wrapped up work today on a bill enabling Wisconsin to use an estimated $88 million of federal funding to extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for up to 13 weeks for the long-term unemployed. The bill, SB 147, could benefit as many as 40,000 Wisconsinites between now and the end of the year. Once the bill is signed, Wisconsin will no longer be one of the small handful of states who are eligible for the extended benefits but choose not to implement the federally-funded extension. 

Today’s vote ended an impasse between the Senate and Assembly over the issue of whether newly laid-off workers must wait a week before they become eligible for UI benefits. The Senate voted about two weeks ago for an amendment to SB 147 to repeal the one-week wait that was created by the state budget bill. However, the Assembly rejected that amendment, and today the Republican Senators all decided to side with the Assembly, thereby completing work on SB 147 and allowing it to be sent to the Governor for his signature. (We examined the waiting period issue in a recent blog post in our “31 Ways” series.)

Read more about the vote today in a new WI Budget Project Blog post.

Jon Peacock