A roundup of recent news regarding unemployment pandemic programs:
At this point TWENTY-FIVE states led by Republican governors are ending their state's participation in federal pandemic unemployment programs early. This is stripping benefits from over 4 million Americans. Ending these programs will cost the states $22 billion, proving this is purely a political move based in cruelty, not a practical one. This weekend 8 states end their federal UI programs, affecting over 400,000 people. Republican governors are justifying their actions by saying there's a worker shortage, but as Sherry from NH says so well in this article, "there's not a worker shortage, there's a living wage jobs shortage."
Leading economists are accusing the White House of undermining their own economic policies by not standing up against these cruel measures. Biden and his team have stated that it "makes sense" for benefits to end September 6 and that the governors have a right to strip benefits early. An appalling showing from a President who claims to champion the working class.
Indiana, one of the 25 states losing benefits early, is the first to see a legal action against the governor for this cut off. Read more about the lawsuit here and here.
3 US Congresspeople from Mississippi and Missouri (2 of the other states being stripped of benefits early) wrote a letter to Richard Neal, the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, urging him to take action to #FixUI. We need all Congresspeople to send letters like these to Rep Neal. Use our contact sheet to contact yours and ask them to urge Neal to support permanent UI reform immediately.
In positive news, the Partial UI coalition as well as advocates across NYS have secured a victory! Permanent fixes to NYS' partial UI rule were made. More here.
We are seeing many states calling out their unemployment systems for not paying out claims. Here are news pieces in New York and Pennsylvania, both written by ExtendPUA.org allies!
Lastly, today Andrew Stettner, at The Century Foundation, put out a solid analysis of the newest jobless claim efforts. Check it out in this twitter thread and in the TCF unemployment data dashboard.
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