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HR 5206
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

Empowering Striking Workers Act of 2025

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and the Social Security Act to provide that an individual engaged in a labor dispute may receive unemployment benefits.

Introduced Sep 8, 2025

Latest action (Sep 8, 2025) Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Referred to
Ways and Means Committee
Policy area
Labor and Employment
Issues
Labor & Wages

Summary

This bill would expand unemployment insurance to cover workers who are unable to work due to labor disputes, including strikes and lockouts. Workers engaged in a labor dispute would become eligible for unemployment benefits starting on whichever comes first: 14 days after a strike begins, when a lockout begins, when an employer hires permanent replacement workers, or when the strike or lockout ends. The bill also exempts striking workers from the standard requirement that unemployment claimants must be available for and actively seeking other work. The changes apply to workers directly affected by labor disputes as well as those affected indirectly by them.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
51 cosponsors

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Donald Norcross’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

  • WESTERN EXTRUSIONS $26,000
  • HOLTEC INTERNATIONAL $14,150
  • COOPER UNIVERSITY HEALTH CARE $13,200
  • CURRENT MASTER ELECTRIC $13,200
  • BACH ASSOCIATES, PC $13,200

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Donald Norcross → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)
  1. Sep 8, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. · house
  2. Sep 8, 2025 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • S 2779 — Tax Cut for Striking Workers Act of 2025 · Introduced Sep 11, 2025 · Cong. 119 77%
  • HR 8816 — Tax Cut for Striking Workers Act of 2026 · Introduced May 14, 2026 · Cong. 119 74%
  • HR 5523 — Employee Benefits Protection Act of 2014 · Introduced Nov 17, 2014 · Cong. 113 72%
  • HR 5561 — Picket Line Protection Act of 2025 · Introduced Sep 23, 2025 · Cong. 119 70%
  • HR 1119 — Unemployment Integrity Act of 2025 · Introduced Feb 7, 2025 · Cong. 119 70%
  • HR 3438 — Fair Wage Act of 2025 · Introduced May 15, 2025 · Cong. 119 70%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Sep 8, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 8, 2025

Mr. Norcross (for himself, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Simon, Mr. Magaziner, Ms. Norton, Mrs. McIver, Ms. Hoyle of Oregon, Mr. Deluzio, Ms. Budzinski, Mrs. Ramirez, Ms. Pingree, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Casar, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Barragan, Ms. Adams, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Chu, Mrs. Dingell, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Omar, Ms. Randall, and Mr. Carson) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

A BILL

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and the Social Security Act to provide that an individual engaged in a labor dispute may receive unemployment benefits.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Empowering Striking Workers Act of 2025”.

SEC. 2. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE FOR STRIKING WORKERS.

(a) In General.—Section 3304(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking “and” at the end of paragraph (18), by striking the period at the end of paragraph (19) and inserting “; and”, and by adding at the end the following:

“(20) in the case of an individual who is employed but unable to work due to a labor dispute (including any controversy concerning terms, tenure or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee), including an individual unable to work as an indirect result of such a labor dispute, compensation is payable to such individual as though such individual were unemployed beginning on the date that is the earlier of—

“(A) the date that is 14 days after the date on which a strike began;

“(B) the date on which a lock-out began;

“(C) the date on which the employer hired permanent replacement workers; or

“(D) the date on which the strike or lock-out ended and the individual became unemployed.”.

(b) Exemption From Work Availability Requirement.—Section 303(a)(12) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 503(a)(12)) is amended by inserting “(other than a claimant who is an individual unable to work due to a labor dispute as described in section 3304(a)(20) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986)” after “claimant”. <all>

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