In the weeks since millions of Americans lost an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits, state governments are deciding whether to apply for more federal aid.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance created through the CARES Act passed by Congress in March originally offered an extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits before its expiration last month.
Since then, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing FEMA to continue offering a $300 monthly payment for jobless Americans applying for benefits through the Lost Wages Assistance Program.
States can boost that amount to $400 in weeks benefits if they cover at least $100 of it on their own.
While Congress has yet to reach an agreement on more federal aid, it remains unclear when unemployed workers would see an increase in their weekly checks as states must first file an application with FEMA for grant funding.
The Washington Employment Security Department announced on Thursday that the state is applying this week for the federal aid through FEMA.
If approved, the state unemployment office will pay out additional $300 in weekly benefits to those who have lost work because of the COVID-19 pandemic for as long as three weeks.
“We will implement this as quickly as possible to distribute the extra payments to Washingtonians once our application is approved,” said ESD Commissioner Suzi LeVine in a statement. “Any additional funds to help unemployed workers are welcome and we estimate that this will provide more than $400 million to families, individuals and our state’s economy. It is important however, to emphasize that this benefit is currently time-limited to those filing claims over a three-week period, between July 26 and August 15 and not everyone who has filed an unemployment claim will be eligible.”
The department will provide a timeline for when the program will launch so that payments can be made to eligible claimants.
By contrast, Oregon has not announced whether it will apply for the FEMA aid.
The Oregon Employment Department’s Acting Director David Gerstenfeld said again on Wednesday that inputting new payment metrics into its aging computer system would take time.
“We don’t want to be in a situation of doing our best to get a small benefit being offered now into people’s hands now and that impeding our ability to get a more robust support system in place quickly if there is congressional action that’s taken to provide additional support,” Gerstenfeld said. “Before we get money to people we would need to know how to administer it. Frankly, everything we’re seeing about the approval process once a state submits an application is that goes quite quickly. So that is not barrier.”
Oregon’s “waiting week” for regular unemployment benefits is still active. Gerstenfeld has said the department plans on updating its computer systems in some capacity in coming months.
As the Oregonian reported in April, the Oregon Employment Department’s decades-old computer system has hampered its response to jobless claims in spite of the millions in federal funds it received to update its technology.
The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 10.2 percent in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. That month, Oregon and Washington’s unemployment rates stood at 10.2 and 10.3, respectively.
