Judge Rules Administration Can't Cut Extra Jobless Pay
A federal judge has ruled that the Carter administration improperly restricted additional unemployment compensation to the long-term unemployed.</br></br>The administration had hoped to save more than $1 billion through the fall of. 1981 by redefining last January the method for calculating when states are eligible to provide 13 weeks of additional unemployment insurance beyond the regular 26-week benefit period. The reduction in benefits would have affected about 1.2 million persons.</br></br>Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer ruled, however, that the Labor DepartmentÛªs' new eligibility definition conflcited with the way Congress has interpreted the law that made the benefits available 10 years ago. Moreover, Oberdorfer said, the Secretary of Labor had issued regulations implementing the, law that coincided with the way Congress had defined it.</br></br>Oberdorfer, -in an opinion released late Thursday, said any changes in the definition would have to be made by ÐÊCongress and not by the Secretary of Û¢ Labor.</br></br>Oberdorfer acted in a case brought by the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers union. A spokesman for;tha* Labor Department said yesterday.tha. agency is considering asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to review Oberdorf-erÛªs decision.	Û¢ Û¢Ûª*	'