The clock is ticking for many of the 30 million people who have been receiving unemployment benefits. Across the country, those benefits have either already expired or are set to expire tomorrow, because Republicans in the Senate refuse to take action to provide real relief.
Instead, Senate Republicans unveiled a new stimulus package bill that seeks to lower unemployment benefits for folks who are already struggling to put food on the table while, infuriatingly, doubling the so-called "three-martini lunch deduction."1 The Trump administration and Senate Republicans are not listening to the American people, and we need them to do better.
Will you call your senators and demand they extend the $600 COVID-19 unemployment benefit until the pandemic is over?
- Sen. Sinema - (202) 224-4521
- Sen. McSally - (202) 224-2235
Under the plan released by Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP, unemployed workers would receive only $200 per week. This is not enough to survive on, let alone manage household, health care, childcare, food, and transportation expenses. What's more, this plan would require states to switch to a new and complicated system to calculate and distribute payments to jobless workers.
This is especially cruel, given that many states are already struggling to meet the demands of distributing the current benefits, which are much simpler to administer. This would delay payments for many families who are already struggling, nearly 50% of whom are people of color, who have been hardest hit by the pandemic.
The pandemic is far from over, and the Senate needs to take the kind of action that will make sure each and every American can get through these difficult times. This is why, last week, Move on delivered over 1.6 million signatures in Washington, D.C., to demand that Congress and the Senate extend the $600 COVID-19 unemployment benefit.
We need the Senate to act with the American people in mind and pass the HEROES Act, which will ensure that the $600 unemployment benefits are extended until the end of the pandemic.
- Move on team
Source:
1. "Senate GOP won't extend pandemic food stamps but doubles 'three-martini lunch' deduction," The Washington Post, July 28, 2020
More Information:
Here’s How Congress Might Replace the Extra $600 Weekly Jobless Benefit - The New York Times, July 27, 2020
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