GOP struggles with overhaul of unemployment system, complicating negotiations over stimulus
Senior Republican lawmakers are studying a significant overhaul of emergency unemployment payments that could complicate the work of state agencies already struggling to get the benefits out to millions of Americans.
The ongoing talks are one key reason for the surprising delay in the introduction of the GOP’s $1 trillion stimulus package. Administration officials and GOP lawmakers have said they want to cut but not outright eliminate enhanced federal unemployment benefits, but the final shape of the plan remains in flux.
Typically, state unemployment pays about 45 percent of a worker’s prior wages. In March, Congress approved a $600-per-week emergency bonus for every unemployed worker on top of that traditional payment, funneling hundreds of billions of dollars to newly jobless Americans as the pandemic hit the country.
That federal benefit, currently being received by more than 20 million people, is set to expire at the end of July. And it comes at a time when a federal eviction moratorium is also ending, a dynamic that could put enormous pressure on cash-strapped families.
In practice, the jobless benefit lapse means that millions of workers are seeing their last enhanced benefit payment this week.
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