Additional unemployment benefits may come

There may be more unemployment benefits as Democrats and the Biden administration pursue a $ 1.9 trillion pandemic relief package.

The legislation would increase the value of the benefits that workers receive on a weekly basis and would extend them by a few months.

The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, California, expects a bill to be signed into law by mid-March. Democrats aim to pass legislation using a budget measure that would not require Republican support.

The exact amount and duration of benefits are somewhat uncertain.

It appears that, based on various proposals, Democrats would increase benefits by at least $ 400 a week and extend them at least until August, according to labor experts.

The additional benefits of the $ 900 billion aid package signed by former President Donald Trump in late December are now scheduled to end after mid-March for some workers and after April 11 for others. Without more relief, 11 million unemployed workers would lose income support.

President Joe Biden has proposed increasing unemployment benefits by $ 400 a week – bringing the total pay to about $ 739 a week for the average worker, according to the Department of Labor. It would also extend the benefits until September.

A draft proposal issued by the House Paths and Means Committee this week largely reflects Biden’s plan. However, the benefits would end on August 29.

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The $ 400 weekly grant will begin after March 14, as proposed by the House. In essence, it will increase when the current weekly supplement of $ 300 ends, which means that there would be no retroactive payments at the beginning of the year.

Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is still pushing for a grant of more than $ 600 a week.

“I’m going to fight like hell to get six,” Wyden said this week.

Republicans have strongly opposed an improvement in the $ 600 weekly benefits since the early days of the pandemic. CARES provided a $ 600 supplement for about four months through July.

Older lawyers would prevent people from returning to work, they argued, thus raising the unemployment rate and slowing the economic recovery.

Many studies have found that the $ 600 supplement did not make this happen in total in the spring and summer. In fact, employment has likely increased during this time, according to an article published Wednesday by economists at the University of Chicago.

The economy has improved since then, which means that increased benefits may create a greater deterrent for workers from returning to work, according to some economists.

“I think there is good reason to believe that the deterrent effect will be greater in 2021 than in 2020,” said Peter Ganong, an economist and assistant professor at the University of Chicago.

“It simply came to our notice then [another unemployment supplement] in 2021, “he added,” because of the continuing suffering in the labor market. The benefits should be phased out as more Americans get vaccinated, “he said.

Democrats do not necessarily need Republican votes in favor of a stimulus package, because they aim to promote it with a budget maneuver called reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority vote to succeed.

This plan could be complicated by the intention of the House Democrats to attach a minimum package of $ 15 per hour to the aid package. Senator Joe Manchin, DW.V., came out against the proposal, and a Democratic deserter could lower the bill’s chances.

“For the Senate to swallow this, I think, is more of a problem,” said Wayne Vroman, a labor economist at the Urban Institute, a left-wing think tank.

Congress should be wrong about extending the benefits for a longer period than a shorter one, he said, to eliminate the need for another potential extension.

“Whatever the end point, trying to get conservative Democrats to go along with more and more stimulus will be, I think, quite difficult than it seems this time,” Vroman said.

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