Road’s end ahead for jobless benefits
Parties haven’t agreed on extension past December
Workers laid off in mid-March as pandemic shutdown orders took effect are already starting to exhaust the first 26 weeks of regular state unemployment benefits but most will get an automatic 13-week extension that will help them through December.
What happens after that is up to Congress.
Federal lawmakers have been locked in a stalemate for weeks over the contents of a potential fifth coronavirus relief package that would extend supplemental jobless benefits to replace a $600-per-week COVID unemployment benefit that expired at the end of July.
Anyone collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance — the emergency federal program created to extend jobless benefits to the self-employed, gig workers and others who aren’t traditionally eligible for state benefits can collect for up to 46 weeks, though that program also ends in December.
If Congress fails to act before then, unemployment dollars will dry up, leaving millions with no way to pay the bills.
It could spell disaster in Massachusetts, which boasts the highest unemployment rate in the nation, according to federal labor data. Though July’s unemployment numbers did show a slight improvement from the prior month — down from 17.7% to 16.1% — job growth continues to lag in the Bay State. State data shows that initial claims for unemployment insurance increased throughout the end of August.
President Trump offered a glimmer of hope to the millions relying on unemployment assistance on Wednesday, calling on Republicans to increase aid.
“Go for the much higher numbers, Republicans,” Trump tweeted.
Republicans have been wary of signing off on another trillion-dollar-plus deal as deficits and debt soar amid efforts to pull the U.S. economy out of decline.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she’s willing to negotiate from a $2.2 trillion marker set last month, but Senate GOP leaders haven’t budged from a $650 billion measure that Democrats scuttled last week in a filibuster. An earlier $1 trillion Senate GOP plan never gained momentum.
The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Thune of South Dakota, when asked about Trump’s “higher numbers” tweet, told reporters that a good number of Senate Republicans might support a $1 trillion measure. But “as you go upwards from there, you start to start losing Republican support pretty quickly,” he said.