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-SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE-
While on paper, the extra $600 weekly unemployment benefit *expires* today, there was nothing Congress could do this week to prevent a lapse.
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While on paper, the extra $600 weekly unemployment benefit *expires* today, there was nothing Congress could do this week to prevent a lapse.
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On Thursday @senatemajldr said if Dems "had acted with urgency, unemployed Americans wouldn’t be facing a total elimination of this extra help." But there's no way it would have been possible for state systems to add back the federal aid when HEALS was released Monday
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Suggesting that 70% or xx% wage replacement will be roughly $ xx weekly amount of a benefit to an individual could be very misleading. Because states administer UI systems it will be up to them to calculate what 70% replacement means and review the base period of earnings
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Maximum weekly benefit payments vary from state to state. So if the feds are back-filling the rest of the benefit to get a worker to xx% of their prior earnings, the extra federal help will vary widely by state and worker. For example max benefit in LA: $247 vs. CO: $618
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Laid off workers are reading coverage of this debate and banking on seeing $ xxx extra per week. But in reality, it's going to take weeks for state UI systems to calculate their extra federal benefit. AND we really don't know what wage replacement will look like for everyone.
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The @USChamber noted this in its letter outlining what it wanted to see in the next coronavirus package 6/
https://www.uschamber.com/letters-congress/us-chamber-letter-the-phase-4-coronavirus-relief-legislation
https://www.uschamber.com/letters-congress/us-chamber-letter-the-phase-4-coronavirus-relief-legislation
GOP lawmakers are also mad that Dems didn't agree to a one-week patch of the $600 extra benefit per @JakeSherman
7/ https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1289184930589601794?s=20
7/ https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1289184930589601794?s=20
BUT again. EVEN IF there was a one week patch THERE IS NO WAY Congress could have prevented a lapse in the extra federal help.
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As @EvermoreMichele explained to me last week: State computers systems "are programmed to stop paying the benefit as of the 26th at the latest."
It "takes at least two weeks to start them back up again. Even if it's the exact same $600."
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It "takes at least two weeks to start them back up again. Even if it's the exact same $600."
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More details on this in what I wrote with @klandergan last week:
10/ https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/23/gap-unemployment-heres-why-379267
10/ https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/23/gap-unemployment-heres-why-379267
