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To amend section 303 of the Social Security Act to require States to provide unemployment compensation benefits to Federal employees during a government shutdown, and for other purposes.
Summary
The bill amends the Social Security Act to require states to provide unemployment compensation benefits to federal employees who are required to work during government shutdowns but are not being paid due to a lapse in appropriations, specifically for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Federal employees receiving such unemployment compensation must repay it if they subsequently receive back pay for the same period, with unpaid overpayments recoverable by states using their standard overpayment recovery procedures. The federal government will reimburse states 100 percent of the unemployment compensation paid to these employees and any additional administrative expenses incurred by the state, with reimbursements funded through the Unemployment Trust Fund. Money repaid or recovered by states must be deposited into each state's unemployment fund. The bill's definition of affected federal employees covers those designated as "excepted employees" required to work during shutdowns who are not receiving pay.
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)
6 cosponsors
- Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Sen. Duckworth, Tammy [D-IL] (D-IL)
- Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA] (D-VA)
- Sen. Schatz, Brian [D-HI] (D-HI)
- Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD] (D-MD)
- Sen. Warner, Mark R. [D-VA] (D-VA)
Actions (2)
- Sep 30, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. · senate
- Sep 30, 2025 Introduced in Senate
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.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 30, 2025
Ms. Alsobrooks (for herself, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Warner, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Schatz, and Mr. Blumenthal) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend section 303 of the Social Security Act to require States to provide unemployment compensation benefits to Federal employees during a government shutdown, and for other purposes.
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 “Help Federal Employees During Shutdowns Act” or the “Help FEDS Act”.
SEC. 2. REGULAR COMPENSATION REQUIRED FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES DURING A SHUTDOWN.
Section 303 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 503) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(n)(1) For purposes of subsection (a), the unemployment compensation law of a State must—
“(A) allow for excepted Federal employees to apply for and receive unemployment compensation for any week in which such employee is performing emergency work (as such term is defined by the Office of Personnel Management) during a lapse in appropriations during fiscal year 2026 or 2027;
“(B) in the case that an excepted Federal employee receives pay under section 1341(c)(2) of title 31, United States Code, for any period in which such employee received compensation pursuant to subparagraph (A), require such an excepted Federal employee to repay such compensation to the State;
“(C) treat as an overpayment any such compensation not repaid to the State and allow for the recovery of such compensation in the same manner the State recovers any overpayment paid pursuant to the unemployment compensation law of the State; and
“(D) deposit all money repaid or recovered pursuant to subparagraphs (B) and (C) in the unemployment fund of such State.
“(2)(A) The Secretary of Treasury shall pay to each State, for the purpose of providing unemployment compensation to excepted Federal employees pursuant to paragraph (1)(A), the amount described in subparagraph (B). The Secretary of Labor shall, from time to time, certify to the Secretary of the Treasury the amount to be paid under this paragraph.
“(B) There shall be paid to each State an amount equal to 100 percent of—
“(i) the total amount of unemployment compensation provided to excepted Federal employees by the State pursuant to paragraph (1)(A); and
“(ii) any additional administrative expenses incurred by the State in relation to such compensation.
“(C) Funds in the Unemployment Trust Fund (as established by section 904(a)) shall be used to make payments to States pursuant to subparagraph (A).
“(3) In this section, the term ‘excepted Federal employee’ means, with respect to a lapse in appropriations, a Federal employee who—
“(A) is an excepted employee, as defined in section 1341(c)(1) of title 31, United States Code; and
“(B) is not being paid due to the lapse in appropriations.”. <all>
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