The $600 a week lift in unemployment benefits currently provided by the federal government is highly likely to expire at the end of the month if Congress follows Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggested timeline for the upcoming round of pandemic relief.
McConnell said he would begin deliberations on the GOP’s next relief package when the Senate returns from recess next week and start the process of putting together a bill with Democrats. The Kentucky senator said during an event earlier this week that he expects the legislation to be finalized “sometime within the next three weeks, beginning next week.”
This means that the $600 in additional unemployment benefits, created under the $2.3 trillion CARES Act coronavirus relief bill in March and scheduled to expire on July 26, will lapse for some time before Congress has a chance to bring it back to life in the next bill.
This could result in many days, if not weeks, before the benefits resume again, depending on how long Congress takes to negotiate and pass a bill. The lack of additional benefits would reduce the weekly income of over 25 million unemployed workers by more than two-thirds in many states.
Republicans in Congress have signaled an openness to unemployment aid being a part of the next relief package as long as it doesn’t give people disincentives to return to work.
On average, unemployment benefits across the country were $385 per week in February 2020, according to the House Ways and Means Committee. When combined with the added benefit, jobless workers receive nearly $1,000 a week. The median salary for a grocery store cashier, an essential worker, is roughly $600 a week, according to Salary.com.
Some GOP lawmakers, such as Rep. Tom Reed of New York, seek to lower the unemployment benefit, arguing that the $600 amount is too generous and raises people’s incomes significantly above the median salary in his part of western New York.
Democrats, on the other hand, have said that an extension of the jobless benefits is a must-have component of the next relief package. They argue that the benefits are needed to keep laid-off workers afloat, even if they make more money from unemployment benefits for a short period, to prevent the pandemic from turning into a lasting economic catastrophe.
House Democrats have already approved legislation, the $3 trillion HEROES Act in May, to guarantee the benefits into next year. McConnell has dismissed this bill.
“We have to find a compromise because we must extend it,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier in July, although she didn’t specifically insist on the $600 weekly figure in her comments.
