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.