BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 1027 By: Oliveira (Sibley) Economic Development 05-22-95 Senate Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Recent amendments to the Federal Social Security Act require state employment agencies to use a worker profiling system. The profiling system attempts to identify claimants who are likely to exhaust their unemployment benefits before finding another job. These individuals are referred to intensive reemployment services by the Texas Employment Commission to enhance their job searches or to enroll in job retraining programs. A claimant referred to job assistance services through the profiling system who does not participate in those services would not be eligible for unemployment benefits. The federal provision requires state employment agencies to disqualify claimants that refuse job assistance services. Current state law does not allow such a disqualification. PURPOSE As proposed, H.B. 1027 provides for the disqualification of unemployment benefit claimants who refuse job assistance services. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 207.021(a), Labor Code, to add to the provisions under which an unemployed individual is eligible to receive benefits for a benefit period, participation in reemployment services, such as a job search assistance service, if the individual has been determined, according to a profiling system established by the Texas Employment Commission (commission), to be likely to exhaust eligibility for regular benefits and to need those services to obtain new employment, unless: (A) the individual has completed participation in such a service; or (B) there is reasonable cause, as determined by the commission, for the individual's failure to participate in those services. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1995. Makes application of this Act prospective. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.