ICYMI: New Democrat Coalition Members Lead Effort on Unemployment Insurance, Automatic Stabilizers
The coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic crisis is unprecedented and has created immense uncertainty. Last month, the federal pandemic unemployment compensation, which has been a lifeline for 30 million Americans, lapsed. House Democrats saw this deadline coming and passed an extension of the $600 weekly assistance months in advance. Yet Republicans waited until after the emergency unemployment compensation expired to even present their opening bid. That’s why the New Democrat Coalition (NDC) has fought for the implementation of automatic stabilizers into COVID-19 relief packages since the onset of the pandemic so that the health of the economy and financial stability of Americans can’t be held hostage by the political brinksmanship of this administration and Senate Republicans.
Earlier this week, NDC Vice Chair Scott Peters (CA-52), along with NDC Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08) and NDC Chair Derek Kilmer (WA-06), led 114 House Democrats in sending a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer urging the House to take action on unemployment insurance automatic stabilizers. Specifically, the letter, signed by over half the House Democratic caucus, recommended consideration of NDC Rep. Don Beyer and NDC Chair Derek Kilmer’s Worker Relief and Security Act. The bicameral legislation would extend the $600 weekly federal unemployment compensation benefits through the duration of the national COVID-19 public health emergency, provide for unlimited unemployment coverage weeks through January 2021, and then continue providing enhanced compensation and additional coverage weeks determined by national and state total unemployment rates.
See the NDC press release and the full letter signed by 117 total House Democrats. Highlights in the news can be found below. Read more in The Hill, Politico, CNBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.
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Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have insisted on an extension of the $600 subsidy, which had supplemented weekly state-based benefits since its adoption as part of the CARES Act in late March.
That figure was rejected by the Republican negotiators — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — who have joined other conservatives in warning that it's too generous a benefit, one that creates a disincentive for the unemployed to return to work. Amid the impasse, the $600 payment expired on July 31.
Kilmer, Peters, Beyer and the other Democrats pressing for a vote this week want to divorce jobless benefits from such political battles — which frequently end in stalemates — by linking them directly to economic conditions on the ground. That system of automatic triggers is popular among progressives but was not included in the Democrats' $3.4 trillion HEROES Act, which passed the House in May, due to budget concerns.
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The House will gavel in for a rare weekend session to vote on a bill to shore up the U.S. Postal Service, with Democrats furious that the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures have led to mail delays across the country and widespread concerns about ballots not being delivered in time for the 2020 election.
But some Democrats say that vote — which will summon hundreds of lawmakers back to the Capitol for one day during the August recess — should be accompanied by others to show the party is confronting the nation’s ongoing economic crisis, especially with less than three months to go before voters go to the polls.
One proposal being floated by several Democrats is a package of economic measures that would automatically extend jobless benefits to millions of Americans if the economic and health crises continue. The push has been led for months by the centrist New Democrat Coalition, which plans to send a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Monday night. So far, over 75 Democrats have signed onto the letter.
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More than 100 House Democrats are pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi to vote on a bill to extend extra unemployment benefits when the chamber convenes this weekend.
In a letter dated Tuesday, the 114 lawmakers urged the California Democrat and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to take up legislation that would reinstate the lapsed $600 per week jobless benefit until the coronavirus public health emergency ends, then phase it out as state unemployment rates fall. It would also tie available benefit weeks to the unemployment rate.
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As the impasse persists, rank-and-file lawmakers facing re-election from both parties have grown increasingly uneasy with the lack of congressional action. Dozens of House lawmakers have signed on to a letter to Ms. Pelosi and Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, asking for a second vote on Saturday, on legislation that would revive the full $600 weekly federal benefit and ensure an automatic continuation and adjustment based on the state of the economic and public health crises.
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In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) was facing pressure from an assortment of Democrats to consider alternatives to her approach of pushing Republicans to accept a deal similar in content to a package that the House passed in May. A group of more than 100 Democrats wrote to her seeking a vote on a measure focused on extending a federal unemployment supplement during the pandemic, and Democrats from districts that President Trump won were showing jitters.
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Scott Peters (D-CA), Donald Beyer Jr. (D-VA), and Derek Kilmer (D-WA) are organizing a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that urges her and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) to pass an extension of the $600 per week federal unemployment insurance benefit that expired in July.
The letter, which according to Politico has garnered nearly 100 Democrat signatures, calls for the House to consider legislation that ties those benefits to certain economic and health indicators.
The letter calls for Speaker Pelosi to consider a bill like the Worker Relief and Security Act, which was introduced in May.
The bill would establish six tiers for states based on their unemployment rate, which would be a three-month average of the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate. During a national emergency related to Covid-19, or related strains, benefits would be paid out based on the state’s tier.
The bill didn’t get much attention in May because we were still months away from the expiration of the $600 per week federal unemployment insurance benefits. Now that we are over two weeks removed from the expiration of the benefits in July, it may get more support especially as negotiations on the next stimulus package have stalled.
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