>>10037088
This is the McClatchy article from today.
Senate Republicans seek reduction of $600 unemployment benefits in stimulus package
Senate Republicans are seeking to reduce — but not eliminate — unemployment benefits related to the pandemic that are expiring at the end of this month, so that recipients are not making more money from the benefit than they did while working.
A $600 weekly benefit that Congress included in a stimulus bill earlier this year will expire next week. Lawmakers are racing to pass a new bill that includes emergency relief for businesses and workers before the fast approaching deadline.
Republicans are rallying behind a reduction in the extra federal benefit. One idea under discussion is to lower the $600 weekly benefit to a flat amount. Another proposal gaining traction would make it a percentage of what individuals were earning before they were laid off.“What I would try to do is something as a percentage of wages,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.
An extension of the current amount of the pandemic unemployment benefit is not supported by President Donald Trump or his advisers. The Trump administration indicated this week, however, that it wants compromise legislation being negotiated on Capitol Hill to include some additional unemployment benefits.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who helped lead an unsuccessful effort in March to eliminate the $600 a week federal unemployment benefit, said Tuesday that he got a sympathetic ear from Trump at a Monday evening dinner.
“We’re gonna have to reduce the benefit, but have a federal benefit but reduce it,” the South Carolina Republican told McClatchy.
Graham argued in March that the extra $600, a benefit that is scheduled to end next week, would reduce motivation for unemployed recipients to look for work.
“There are some people who can’t go back to work that need some help on top of state benefits. We’ve just made it so that it’s a disincentive. Just some compromise on the number that will make it easier to reopen the country,” Graham said Tuesday.
The fate of the $600 benefit is uncertain. The House extended it through January in legislation it passed in May, but Democratic moderates are pushing a plan that would tie the amount of a benefit to a state’s economic conditions.
Republicans have been reluctant to support any benefit. But Graham, like some other Senate Republicans, faces a potentially tough reelection challenge.
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article244383167.html>>10037088