Unemployment Benefit Ends For Millions Without Kickback From Biden


WASHINGTON — Extended unemployment benefits that kept millions of Americans afloat during the pandemic expired Monday, with the Delta variant cutting aid to 7.5 million people abruptly as the pandemic rocked its recovery.

end of help Caught in a political fight over benefits and currently relying on other federal aid and fall recruits to keep vulnerable families out of foreclosures and food lines, it has come without objection from President Biden or his top economic advisers.

The $1.9 trillion economic aid package Mr. Biden signed in March included extended and expanded benefits for unemployed workers, such as a $300-a-week federal supplement to state unemployment benefits, additional weeks for the long-term unemployed, and an extension of benefits. A special program to provide assistance to so-called concert workers who traditionally do not qualify for unemployment benefits. Monday’s expiration means 7.5 million people will lose their benefits altogether, and 3 million will lose their weekly surcharge of $300.

Republicans and small business owners have attacked the extension of aid, claiming it hinders the economic recovery and fuels the labor shortage by discouraging people from seeking jobs. Liberal Democrats and progressive groups pressed for another round of aid, saying millions of Americans are vulnerable and in need of help.

Mr. Biden and his advisers flatly refused to call on Congress to further expand the benefits, a resolution reflecting the prevailing view of recovery within the administration and the president’s desire to shift his political focus to gaining support for his broader economic agenda.

The president’s top economic advisers say the economy is in the process of completion a hand between federal aid and the labor market: As support for the March stimulus bill wanes, they say, more and more Americans are ready to return to work and are drawing paychecks to boost consumer spending instead of unemployment benefits, direct checks to workers, and other government benefits.

And Mr. Biden is pushing Congress this month to pass the two halves of a multi-trillion-dollar agenda focused on longer-term economic growth: a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger, partisan spending bill to invest in childcare, education, carbon reduction. and more. This pressure leaves no political oxygen for an additional short-term aid bill that White House officials insist the economy doesn’t need.

Administration officials say the money that continues to flow to Americans from the March law, including new monthly payments to parents, will continue to maintain the social safety net even as the expanded federal unemployment benefit ends. Mr. Biden urged some states with high unemployment rates and willingness to continue helping unemployed workers to use state aid funds from the March law to help the long-term unemployed. So far, no state has said it plans to do so.

On Sunday, Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the March law allows states to assist the unemployed with employment bonuses and job training and counseling.

“We think jobs are out there and we think states have the resources they need to move people from unemployment to employment,” Mr.

Mr Biden has faced criticism from the left and right on the issue and has responded in a balancing act, supporting the benefits approved by Congress but refusing to push them to expand or defend against attacks from state governments.

Over the summer, business lobbyists and Republican lawmakers urged the president to cut benefits early and blamed business owners for their difficulties in hiring workers, especially in low-wage sectors like accommodation. Shortly after the reaction began, Mr. Biden advocated the benefits but he appealed to the Department of Labor to ensure that unemployed workers who refused job offers forfeit their benefits.

But roughly half of the states, nearly all run by Republican governors, have taken action to cut aid early on their own. Mr. Biden and his administration did not fight the progressives, angering them. The administration is essentially extending this policy until the fall, urging only willing states to fill in expired aid.

“I don’t think we need a comprehensive policy for unemployment benefits at this point across the country, because states are in different places,” Labor secretary Martin J. Walsh said in an interview Friday.

In particular, some management officials have expressed openness to the idea that economic research will eventually show that the benefits have some form of disincentive to workers’ decision to take a job. Critics of the extra unemployment benefits have argued that they are discouraging people from returning to work at a time when record numbers of job postings and many businesses are struggling to get hired.

Evidence so far suggests programs play a limited role at most to keep people out of the workforce. For example, states that terminate benefits early saw little increase in hiring compared to the rest of the country.

Even in the hardest-to-find sectors, many people don’t expect a spike in job applications once benefits end. Other factors—childcare challenges, virus scare, savings accumulated from previous waves of federal aid, and a broader rethinking of Americans’ job choices in the wake of the pandemic—also play a role in keeping people out of work.

“I think it’s one piece of the puzzle, but I don’t think it’s the big piece,” said Ben Fileccia, director of operations and strategy for the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association. “Easy to point out, but I don’t think that’s the real reason.”

Progressives inside and outside Congress were frustrated by the administration’s approach to benefits and warned it could backfire economically. Job growth slowed in August as the Delta variant spread across the country.

“Millions of unemployed workers will suffer when benefits end on Monday, and it wasn’t meant to be this way,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, chairman of the finance committee, said in a press release last week. “From the economic and health conditions on the ground it is clear that we should not cut aid at this time.”

Barnard College economist Elizabeth Ananat, who studies the impact of the pandemic on low-wage workers, said cutting benefits is a threat to both workers and the broader sense when the Delta variant threatens to delay recovery. economy.

“We have this fragile economic recovery, and now we’re going to cut the incomes of the people who need it, and we’re pulling dollars back from an economy that’s still pretty unstable,” he said.

Ms. Ananat follows a group of nearly 1,000 low-income parents who worked in Philadelphia prior to the pandemic. More than half of the pandemic last year lost their jobs prematurely. As of this summer, 72 percent were working, reflecting the strong recovery in the economy as a whole. However, this left 28 percent of their sample unemployed because they couldn’t find a job or because of childcare or other responsibilities.

“We are entering a new school year where there will be a lot more uncertainty for parents than this spring,” Ms Ananat said. “Employers will again be faced with a situation where there are people who want to work, but what should they do when their children are sent home to quarantine?”

Hunger and other hardships fell this year as the job market improved and federal aid, including the expanded Child Tax Credit, reached lower-income families. But cutbacks could change that, said Miss Ananat. “In the absence of a solution, this gap comes and that number rises again,” he said. “This is an important group of people who will be in a much worse situation.”



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