Less than one month after its passage, Congress is already revisiting some of the key agreements it reached in the Ryan-Murray budget deal. In this week's Taxpayer's Tab, NTUF compiled all of the bills that would make changes to two major benefits programs: emergency unemployment insurance, and pay for military retirees.
During the December budget negotiations, Congress failed to reach an agreement on how (or whether) to extend emergency unemployment insurance benefits, which were offered to provide relief for long-term unemployed Americans who had exhausted other forms of payments. One of the obstacles lawmakers continue to face is how those benefits would be paid for if they were to continue. A number of proposals have called for a short term extension without any offsets to the cost; others, including an amendment offered by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), would extend the program for a longer term in exchange for offsets spread out over the next ten (or more) years. A 3-month extension is estimated to cost about $6.56 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Another point of contention arose regarding retirement benefit calculations for military veterans under the age of 62. Currently, those personnel are offered benefits at a reduced rate. Congress is now debating whether those reductions should exist at all, or whether certain servicemembers -- namely, those retired due to disability -- should be exempt.
For a detailed list of the bills NTUF compiled, check out the latest Tab online here.