Unemployment program has federal strings

Rules surrounding Washington state's new policy to allow striking workers to receive unemployment insurance (UI) benefits might have run into an inconvenient reality: UI is not only a state program. While employers in our state fund the benefits that go to unemployed workers, the UI program is a state-federal partnership with federal strings, federal oversight and federal dollars attached.

That's why a recent "questions and answers" letter from the U.S. Department of Labor matters. In the Jan. 8 memo to state UI administrators, the department reiterates a core rule under federal law: States mu...