While lawmakers are continuing on throughout the session, one change that has been discussed relates to unemployment benefits. 

Unemployment changes have been discussed and has been passed out of the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate and Iowa House Representative for District 19 Carter Nordman talks about a few of those proposed changes including shortening the amount of time for benefits. 

“It shortened the amount of time Iowans can collect unemployment from 26 weeks to 16 weeks. It is my personal belief that four months is a very reasonable amount of time to expect Iowans to find work, especially with the current job market I believe there is over 80,000 jobs available. There are more jobs available than there are people looking for jobs.”

Nordman tells Raccoon Valley Radio it would also shorten the amount of time for unemployment due to a plant closure, shortening it from 39 to 26 weeks. Also, Nordman says if you refuse a job offer your percentage you receive on unemployment will be lower. 

“It’s important to note that I think the average timeframe that someone’s on unemployment is around 13 weeks, most people are off by 16 weeks.”

For a full look at the proposed bill you can go here.