Congress Not Rushing To Prevent Lapse Of Extra $600 Unemployment Benefit
WASHINGTON ― With two weeks until additional unemployment benefits expire, Congress remains at a standstill on another coronavirus package ― and the odds of lawmakers reaching a deal before people start missing payments are seeming increasingly long.
Despite some new consensus that the additional $600 in federal unemployment benefits shouldn’t disappear entirely, Republicans and Democrats are still far apart on an actual deal. Republicans are looking at a number closer to $200, and Democrats are pushing for benefits closer to $500.
The benefits end on July 31, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that senators won’t start negotiating in earnest until next week, when lawmakers return to the Capitol from recess. McConnell’s top priority for the legislation is protecting schools and businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits — an idea Democratic leaders strongly oppose.
The timing all but guarantees that even if Congress agrees to preserve benefits, it won’t do so quickly enough to prevent a lapse in the higher payments. July 31 is a Friday, and since many states pay unemployment compensation on Saturday or Sunday, some claimants may actually receive their final $600 weekly payment on July 25 or 26, according to Michele Evermore of the National Employment Law Project.
“Republican opposition is leading to a lapse in enhanced unemployment benefits,” Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. “There will be significant harm to families and our economy, even if benefits are ultimately extended.”
“Mitch McConnell may already have doomed the tens of millions of American workers who depend on enhanced federal unemployment benefits to a sudden, sharp decline in income at the end of July,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).
A spokesman for Senate Finance Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who oversees unemployment insurance policy, said Grassley is working with...
