State unemployment agencies are bracing for a processing nightmare if Congress lets expanded weekly benefits expire this month and then enacts a new model—a situation that would require overburdened systems to be reprogrammed twice and almost certainly delay payments to jobless workers.
Lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill on Monday to face an incredibly difficult task of brokering a deal with the White House on a new virus-relief package before the $600 weekly boost to jobless aid authorized by the $2.2 trillion CARES Act lapses next week.
Failure to quickly resolve partisan differences and hash out another massive stimulus bill would ...