Trump Administration Fails To Deliver Aid To The Unemployed

Press Release

Monday marked two weeks since Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted states would have the Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) unemployment program created by Executive Order up and running within two weeks, but only two states--representing less than 10 percent of national continuing unemployment insurance claims--reported having actually distributed aid through the program. Even in those states only a fraction of eligible recipients received payments to date, so the actual figure is likely significantly lower.

Guidance from the Department of Labor and FEMA indicated that states approved for LWA are only guaranteed to receive three weeks of the cut-in-half unemployment benefit, dependent on the level of funding remaining in FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). According to FEMA the DRF "fund(s) eligible response and recovery efforts associated with domestic major disasters and emergencies;" major disasters have been declared recently in Iowa, California, and severalgulf states.

"Economists, governors, and workers widely agree that President Trump's smoke and mirrors executive orders simply are not good enough," said Rep. Don Beyer, Vice Chair of Congress' Joint Economic Committee. "It has been a month now since Senate Republicans shamefully allowed enhanced unemployment benefits to expire. The American people need real relief that fights the pandemic and puts money in workers' pockets -- posturing and gimmicks will not solve the enormous problems they face. If the White House does not get serious about the level of aid that is needed it will imperil the economic recovery."

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