State Legislators Oppose Expanded Unemployment Mandates

Federal mandates on state unemployment insurance are the wrong use of stimulus
funds

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC), the nation's largest nonpartisan, individual
membership association of state legislators, recently passed a Resolution
Opposing Federal Mandates on Unemployment Insurance. The resolution opposes
the required federal changes which would expand eligibility of unemployment
insurance and move the system toward a federally controlled social welfare
program.

Governors of several states, including Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Texas and South Carolina, have already indicated they will reject federal
stimulus funds because the American Recovery Reinvestment Act, ARRA, required
changes to state laws which will increase spending, result in increased taxes,
and create future budget liabilities. ALEC legislators strongly oppose forcing
states, as a condition of federal funding, to change state unemployment
insurance laws.

"The federal government is encroaching into our every day lives at an alarming
rate, from dictating how we teach our children to funding federal initiatives
that many believe to be immoral, over-regulating and taxing our citizenry,
meddling in our personal lives and interfering with the affairs of our state.
We must stop this unchecked growth of the government before it's too late.
State legislators must lead the fight because the power the federal government
is illegally assuming is ours," said Mississippi State Representative Steve
Palazzo, and ALEC member.

The federal government's meddling in state unemployment insurance eligibility
is a misuse of stimulus funds, and a violation of the powers explicitly
reserved for the states in the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the nation's largest
nonpartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators.

SOURCE American Legislative Exchange Council

Jorge Amselle of ALEC, +1-202-742-8536, jamselle@alec.org