Congress is scrambling to pass an emergency relief package this week as the economy shows signs of strain.- Around 13 million people stand to lose all jobless aid if lawmakers fail to renew certain federal programs.
- A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a plan on Tuesday that could aid unemployed people with new $300
federal unemployment benefits and an extension of another program covering gig workers.
Nearly 13 million Americans could lose all their jobless aid at the end of the month if Congress doesn't renew federal unemployment programs that it set up in the spring.
Lawmakers in both parties are scrambling this week to enact another emergency relief package before adjourning until January. A bipartisan group of largely centrist senators on Monday unveiled a $748 billion package that could aid unemployed people going into next year.
Here are 3 of its key provisions for the unemployed:
- $300 weekly enhanced
unemployment insurance for 16 weeks from the end of December until April 19, 2021. - An 16-week extension of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for gig workers until April 19.
- Extra 16 weeks until April 19 in Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which provides payouts to people whose state benefits have dried up.
This part of the federal rescue package could either be approved by Congress or attached to a year-end annual $1.4 trillion spending bill that would keep the government funded until early next year. Lawmakers have until midnight Friday to approve another spending bill or many parts of the government would start shutting down.
Other parts of the package could also provide critical relief to out-of-work Americans. The legislation also proposes extending the eviction moratorium set to lapse on December 31 for an extra month while providing $25 billion in rental assistance for people who fell behind on their rent payments.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group, said in a statement on Tuesday that President-elect Joe Biden could extend the moratorium once he's in office.
But the crawling pace of relief negotiations may guarantee millions of unemployed people lose their federal aid for a period of time, experts say, since unemployment systems are difficult to readjust.
"Even if a deal passes this week, we're looking at a lapse in UI for many many workers and a lag in paying out an FPUC top-off if there is one," Elizabeth Pancotti, a policy advisor at Employ America, wrote on Twitter, referring the formal name for federal unemployment benefits.
"4 million workers have exhausted UI already. There's another 9 million waiting in the wings for the next two weeks. Getting those folks back in a system with a faulty foundation (at best) isn't an overnight thing," she said in a follow-up tweet.