TO: Members of the South Carolina General Assembly FROM: John L. Finan, Agency Administrator
SC Department of Employment and Workforce SUBJECT: Federal Sequestration Impact on DEW
It appears recent automatic cuts to the federal budget (sequestration) will impact the amount of benefits S.C. claimants on Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC—currently 29 weeks) receive.
We do not yet know whether weekly benefits will be reduced by a certain percentage, or if the number of weeks authorized will be changed. We are currently awaiting guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
Any reductions will most likely begin in April.
While other federal programs offered in South Carolina were protected from the sequestration, federal EUC benefits were not exempted. These changes will not affect any claimants on South Carolina state Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits (the first 20 weeks of benefits).
EUC is a temporary federal program created in 2008 to assist individuals who have exhausted regular state benefits. In the Palmetto State, this federal EUC program provides up to an additional 29 weeks of benefits for qualifying individuals.
There are approximately 22,000 claimants currently receiving EUC in our state.
The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) is working closely with DOL, which will be offering guidance to all states on how to implement cuts to EUC programs as well as to other federal funding streams that fund the agency’s day-to-day administration and operations.
The agency is currently analyzing how to offset these budget reductions.

House Defeats Efforts to Opt-into Obamacare Expansion
House rejects spending billions to expand broken system

(Columbia, SC) – As the full House debated the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) section of the state budget today, amendments were offered to opt South Carolina into Obamacare’s massive new Medicaid expansion. Each attempt to force our state into implementing this Obamacare expansion was defeated by wide margins.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell issued the following statement about the House’s strong stance against Obamacare Expansion:

“If more money and more government produced healthier citizens, Americans should be the healthiest population on the planet – but we’re not. The current system is clearly broken but instead of trying to fix this broken system, Obamacare simply makes it bigger.

“Unlike the unsustainable new spending of Obamacare, we have proposed real solutions that use existing resources to target more effective health options that will actually improve the health of our citizens.

“We knew the HHS section of the budget is where Obamacare supporters would make the strongest push to opt-in and we stood strong against this multi-billion dollar expansion.”

ANDERSON COUNTY LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION AGENDA: Wednesday, March 13, 2013, Room 521, Blatt Building, Columbia, South Carolina, 9:00 A.M.
1. Call to Order and Invocation
2. Approval of Minutes of Previus Meeting
3. Appointments:
a. State Board of Education
b. Anderson County Disabilities and Special Needs Board
c. Anderson County Veteran Affairs Officer
d. Tri-County Technical College Board
4. Old Business
5. New Business
6. Adjournment