Action Needed: Contact Congress

Provide full unemployment benefit reimbursement to nonprofits that self-insure these benefits.

Federal and state unemployment laws give nonprofits and governments the option of operating as self-insured (“reimbursing”) employers. This means that they reimburse their state unemployment insurance systems for benefits the state paid to the organization's laid off or furloughed employees.

Shutdown orders by government officials, program cancellations, and reduced revenue streams have forced many nonprofits to furlough or layoff staff, triggering unemployment payment bills that are due this month in most states. These challenges are adding to cash flow difficulties at a time when funds are needed to deliver on missions, but when other employers will likely experience little or no additional costs resulting from COVID-19-related layoffs.

Congress should increase the federal unemployment insurance reimbursement for self-insured (reimbursing) nonprofits to 100% of costs.

More Background Information

Please Contact Congress TODAY

Please contact Idaho's Senators and Representatives the following: 

Senator/Representative, 

Two-thirds of the states are sending out invoices this month to thousands of charitable nonprofits requiring reimbursement of the unemployment compensation paid to their employees laid off or furloughed due to COVID-19. While other employers are able to conserve resources to weather the pandemic storm, self-insured (reimbursing) nonprofits must make major outlays of cash, right now, while the pandemic continues to rage.

This means that nonprofits that already had to reduce staffs because of COVID-19 are now going to have to lay off even more employees just to come up with the resources to pay unemployment compensation bills to their states. It’s the public that suffers from this spiraling down of jobs and services. It is imperative that Congress increase the federal unemployment insurance reimbursement for self-insured nonprofits to 100% of costs. 

Thank you for your time, 

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Reach out on Social Media

You can also tag/mention Idaho's elected officials on social media to bring more attention to the issue.

• Senator Mike Crapo's Twitter = @MikeCrapo
• Senator Jim Risch's Twitter = @SenatorRisch
• Representative Mike Simpson's Twitter = @CongMikeSimpson
• Representative Russ Fulcher's Twitter = @RepRussFulcher

Please don't force #nonprofits to lay off more employees to pay unemployment bills. Can you include #Relief4Charities in the next #COVID19 relief bill? https://bit.ly/3fhWFrx 

 
Content provided by the National Council of Nonprofits.