North Cook News

WASHINGTON – On May12, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), a Chief Deputy Whip and Ranking Member of the Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee, released the following statement on recent cuts to unemployment and sick benefits for rail workers:

“Railroad workers and their families are unfairly seeing their unemployment and sick leave benefits cut. With the end of the pandemic national emergency, they are immediately seeing a 5.7% reduction in their benefits. This is unacceptable, and railroad workers have been singled out for too long. Congress must pass my Railroad Employee Equality and Fairness (REEF) Act immediately. This bipartisan, bicameral, and commonsense legislation permanently removes railroad workers’ benefits from the impact of budget sequestration. Rather than holding a hearing on the REEF Act, on the very day families saw benefits cut, Rep. Arrington instead held a misguided hearing on ‘waste’ to distract from the real issues facing the country. Republicans want to inflict cruel cuts at the expense of working Americans instead of doing the right thing and passing a clean debt ceiling bill. These unjust benefit cuts are a real, urgent issue that is really harming families. We must quickly pass the REEF Act to right this wrong.”

Original source can be found here.