On December 11, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an authorization bill for national defense, which included an amendment for the REEF Act. This provision would fully restore unemployment and sickness benefits to all railroad workers.
The amendment was added after lobbying by the BLET and Teamsters Rail Conference. The measure passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 281-140, and the Senate is expected to pass the NDAA with the REEF Act included either Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
Over the past decade, apart from a period during Covid when benefits were temporarily restored, individual railroad workers in need have unfairly had their benefits reduced by about $200 per month. The Railroad Employee Equity and Fairness (REEF) Act would remove the harmful sequester implemented in 2013, which unfairly targeted railroad workers.
In the simplest terms and in this case, “sequestration” is an accounting trick used by Congress to lock-up funds owed to railroaders when they are most in need so that an equal amount of funds can be used to boost the government spending elsewhere.
Unemployment and sickness benefits payable under the Railroad Retirement Sickness and Unemployment (RUIA) have been sequestered or reduced since 2013, as part of a package of automatic spending cuts required by the Budget Control Act of 2011. Currently, RUIA unemployment benefits are being sequestered at the rate of 5.7%, as are RUIA sickness benefits. Over the years, these rates have been adjusted annually when the federal sequestration is recalculated. Railroaders have seen their benefits sequestered as high as 9.2% in the past.
Passage of the NDAA would permanently end the unfair sequestration of RUIA benefits for railroad workers who become unemployed or sick on the job. Unlike traditional state unemployment insurance benefits, the Railroad Retirement Board’s unemployment insurance benefits are subjected to sequester. Without this legislative fix, railroaders and their families will continue to be unjustly shortchanged.
If passed by the Senate, President Biden is expected to sign the NDAA legislation by the end of the calendar year.