Congressman John Boccieri (Democrat of Ohio)

Representative Tom Rooney (Republican of Florida), has introduced a second bill proposing to expand the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (or WOTC) program. Cosponsored by Congressman John Boccieri (Democrat of Ohio), this bill would add a new eligibility category (or “targeted group”) — Long Term Unemployed. Click here for Representative Rooney’s press release.
Under this proposal, employers who hire an individual that has received 26 weeks of unemployment benefits will receive a federal tax credit equal to 40% of the employees first $6,000 (that’s $2,400) in wages during their first year of employment.
Earlier this month, this same bi-partisan duo introduced a bill dubbed as The HIRE American Act, which would expand the WOTC program to provide a smaller tax credit for the hire of any new employee — even those not qualifying under any specific targeted group.
To be fair, here’s a photo of Representative Boccieri from Ohio. (I included Representative Rooney’s picture in the previous post.)