With the 2025-26 state budget agreement now finalized, House and Senate lawmakers returned to Harrisburg last week for session. Notably, House lawmakers advanced a proposal that backtracks on a compromise regarding unemployment compensation that was brokered in a previous session. Here is a rundown of last week’s legislative action most relevant to employers.

 

 

Unemployment Compensation (H.B. 1995; Dawkins)

 The House of Representatives voted 121-81 to pass House Bill 1995 last Monday.

This legislation would postpone a previously agreed-to Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund (UCTF) cost-savings measure from Act 144 of 2016 that is triggered to go into effect next year.

Act 144 of 2016 was a compromise UC package that expanded benefit eligibility for certain seasonal workers in exchange for cost saving measures that would be triggered in the years ahead if the UCTF remained below an adequate solvency level.  H.B. 1995 violates the terms of this compromise by postponing one of the triggers, despite the UCTF remaining insolvent and employers continuing to pay some of the highest UC taxes in the country.

This bill would postpone the effective date of this agreed-to measure, which is contrary to the 2016 agreement. We opposed this legislation (CLICK HERE for our memo), which now advances to the Senate.