Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Without Trump’s signature, pandemic unemployment relief ends

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Expanded unemployment benefits have lapsed for millions of Americans because President Trump failed to sign a bipartisan $ 900 billion coronavirus relief package sent to his office this week. The legislation would add $ 300 per week in federally funded unemployment benefits to normal state payments, expand Emergency Unemployment for All Workers (PUEC), and expand Special Unemployment Benefits (PUA) for workers self-employed or construction workers who are not normally eligible.

Trump could still sign the bill containing the relief measures. But even if he does, the PUA and PUEC payments at around 13 million Americans will be interrupted for at least a week. Direct relief payments of $ 600 that could have hit more Americans as early as next week have also been delayed at best.

Trump, who is at home in Florida for the holidays, and who would to play golf, overturned a bipartisan deal for extended unemployment benefits and relief payments on Dec. 22, when he criticized the bill as A shame.”

This morning on Twitter, Trump reiterated his main dispute with Bill, writing, “I just want to get our great people $ 2,000, rather than the measly $ 600 that’s now in Bill.” Also, stop the billions of dollars in “pig”.

However, the stimulus did not seem to weigh as heavily on the president’s mind as other issues – just before his statement on payments, he sent out half a dozen Tweets repeating claims of fraud that were denied during the presidential election he lost on November 3.

Trump’s criticisms came despite the participation of his representative, the Secretary of the Treasury Stephen mnuchin, in the months-long negotiations that shaped the bill. Mnuchin said on Monday again that Americans would receive money from the bill “early next week.” This possibility now seems dead.

Unemployment benefits and expanded relief allowances can still be reinstated if Trump signs the bill in the coming days, or if Congress meets again to craft a new version that meets with the president’s approval. But states cannot issue payments during the weeks that begin before signing the invoice, the extended PUA and PUEC benefits will not be paid for the week from December 27 to January. 2. This would effectively reduce the AUP extension of the bill from 11 to 10 weeks.

Trump’s pending bill also extends a moratorium on evictions. Without it, economists and housing experts predicted million Americans could be deported in the coming weeks.

Trump’s refusal to sign the bill also raises the specter of a federal government shutdown as of December 29, as the relief measures are coupled with a broader government funding program. A shutdown would mean no paychecks for about two million federal employees.

Although these employees would guaranteed payment arrears once any downtime is resolved, their missing paychecks could add to the risk wider economy posed by the fault in relief. The economic recovery that began in the summer has slowed down and new jobless claims stood up slightly these last weeks.

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