Oregon's Wyden, now chair of powerful committee, to push for unemployment reform
PORTLAND, Ore. — Hundreds of thousands of Oregonians suddenly found themselves without a job in 2021, thrust into an unemployment system not equipped for the surge in demand. That was the case for millions of Americans, too. So what's in store for 2021?
At the federal level, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who now chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, indicated unemployment will be one of his top priorities.
Wyden told KATU News he will once again pursue what he called a "trigger" for expanded unemployment benefits. President-elect Joe Biden signaled his support for the idea, too. That trigger would tie the unemployment benefit amount to economic conditions. In its most basic form benefits would go up when the economy goes bad. When the economy improves, benefits go back down.
"I want everyone to know that I’m going to push with every bit of my energy to ensure there are triggers to tie benefits to economic conditions so the Senate doesn’t need to come back and revisit these issues every few months. There is too much to do and too often in the past these arbitrary dates holds progress up," said Wyden during a call with media last week.
Speaking to KATU News, Wyden said he doesn't believe unemployment benefits should "be at the whim of some political official."
Wyden said this would also help to eliminate some of the stress or anxiety people may feel when a federal benefit program is set to expire. As many as 52,000 Oregonians were in jeopardy of suddenly losing some federal unemployment benefits at the end of the year, but Congress acted at the 11th hour to extend those programs.
A potential pitfall for Wyden's proposal would come at the state level. Oregon, along with some other states, had trouble implementing changes to the unemployment system brought about by the CARES Act last year, thanks to aging computer systems. The change Wyden is proposing would require a major overhaul to state systems.
"Even the smallest tweaks to unemployment can cause havoc in the unemployment system," said Eric Fruits, vice president of Research at the Cascade Policy Institute.
Wyden acknowledged that, saying, 'To do that is going to require a fair amount of effort to make sure that administrative systems are set up in order to do it, and that’s what I’ll be focused on as chair of the Senate Finance Committee -- to make sure the nuts and bolts of doing the administration is better."
Wyden, along with Biden, is pushing for additional weekly federal benefits. Currently, Americans are receiving an extra $300 per week. Biden said last week he wants that to go to $400. Wyden is pushing for $600.
"Joe Biden is moving in my direction," said Wyden.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers, as well as business owners, have long feared additional weekly benefits may prove to be a disincentive for people to return to work.
"We’re going to have a lot of pressure to go back to work. Because of employers want to bring people back to work, they want to sell stuff, do stuff," said Fruits. "We want to encourage people to go back to work, and if they are paid to stay home, that will be a disincentive to do so."
Oregon unemployment in 2021: What's ahead?
Meanwhile, state leaders expect unemployment will be a conversation in the 2021 legislative session.
Oregon Employment Department Acting Director David Gerstenfeld said state leaders may want to look at changes to Oregon's unemployment tax rate. Gerstenfeld said they will need to balance short-term relief for small businesses with the long-term solvency of Oregon's Unemployment Trust Fund.
Gerstenfeld also expects lawmakers to consider issues related to overpayments that have proved to be an issue for some. Lawmakers may also look at how some part-time workers receive benefits.
"I think there's also going to be, I hope, a look at the safety net that the unemployment insurance program provides as a whole and how to make sure that that provides safety for as broad a cross section of Oregon as possible," said Gerstenfeld.
Moving forward, Gerstenfeld also expects conversations around re-employment to increase as businesses begin hiring workers once again.
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