Lawmakers Set to Allow Unemployment Benefits to End on Labor Day

Democrats on Capitol Hill have no plan to extend unemployment insurance benefits before they end on Labor Day, despite the rise in the delta variant’s spread and the reinstatement of mask mandates in areas across the country.

House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.), whose committee would be responsible for pushing the end date beyond Sept. 6, cited the lack of appetite from the White House and the debate about whether the $300-per-week benefit is needed anymore, as jobs become available, unemployment has shrunk, and children return to school.

“The president’s position has been to hold off on it until we see more evidence on it,” Neal said. “There’s a series of pretty good competing debates about that whole question.”

Three programs are set to expire on Sept. 6: one providing $300 extra in weekly unemployment insurance, one giving unemployment benefits for otherwise ineligible workers, and one for additional aid to workers after their state benefits run out.

Officials in 26 states have already stopped at least some of the extra unemployment insurance payments, ending benefits for more than 4.7 million, according to a June 23 issue brief from the National Employment Law Project. Proponents said that doing so would offer incentives for people to return to the workforce.

Nine of the 26 states had a statistically significant drop in unemployment in July based on state-level data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and at least a half dozen still-pending lawsuits are seeking to force governors and state workforce agencies to resume paying the enhanced unemployment benefits.

Jobless Aid Cutoff Lawsuits Push Ahead as Expiration Looms

The state actions, plus a near-impossible path through the House, has dulled interest in an extension, Budget Committee Chair John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said.

“I just don’t think there’s any sense that it’s a winnable issue,” he said.

No Momentum

Progressive members are discussing whether to push for an extension, said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the whip for the Congressional Progressive Caucus. But given the more immediate concerns this week of approving a budget resolution, Omar said the caucus hasn’t yet had a chance to take a position.

“We will soon, once we have the opportunity to do so,” she said.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and other progressives staged a protest outside the House after representatives left for the August recess without passing a bill to extend a ban on evictions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new order Aug. 3 that sought to protect renters for two months, though it’s the subject of a lawsuit from landlord groups.

Education and Labor Committee Chair Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said he’d like to see the jobless benefits continue, but fewer people would need them as schools re-open and parents are able to return to work.

“You have to look at what we have done,” he said. “We have provided a huge benefit for people.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh wrote to members of Congress earlier this month saying it was “appropriate” for the unemployment benefits to expire. States and localities can continue the benefits through Covid-19 funding (Public Law 117-2) provided in March.

Business groups have long called for the payments to end. Neil Bradley, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s executive vice president and chief policy officer, wrote on May 7 that the monthly jobs report — with lower than expected gains — “makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market.”

The National Federation of Independent Business called on its members to urge action on the “Get Americans Back To Work Act” (H.R. 3104, S. 1555). The legislation, introduced May 11 by Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), would terminate the payments.