Mitch McConnell is ‘prepared to support’ $600 unemployment benefit if Trump supports
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested he would support an extension of the now-expired $600 unemployment benefits in the new coronavirus relief bill if the provision is backed by President Trump.
The CARES Act, the first coronavirus bill signed into law in March, included $600 a week for unemployment.
The HEALS Act, introduced last week by Senate Republicans, will replace 70 percent of what someone made before getting laid off, instead of the $600 check, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa. The $600 benefits expired on July 31.
Democrats in Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have pushed for continuing the $600 unemployment benefits, while signaling some room for compromise depending on the unemployment rate, Business Insider reported. The unemployment rate was 11.1% in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after peaking at 14.7% in April, surpassing the level of unemployment during the Great Recession.
McConnell was asked during his Senate Republican press conference on Tuesday about the Democrats’ position on the benefits and if he could support the extension.
“Wherever this thing settles between the president of the United States and his team, who has to sign it into law, and the Democrat, not insignificant minority in the Senate and majority in the House, is something I’m prepared to support,” McConnell said. “Even if I have some problems with certain parts of it.”
Pelosi told CNN that Democrats are willing to negotiate a lower amount if people return to work.
“I think that the number, the $600, is related more to the unemployment rate. If the unemployment goes down, then that number can go down,” Pelosi said.
“A building is on fire, and they are deciding how much water they want to have in the bucket,” Pelosi continued on CNN. “This is very important — millions of people could have fallen into poverty without this $600.”
House Democrats passed their own $3 trillion stimulus bill, called the Heroes Act, on May 15, but it never received a vote in the Senate, according to Forbes. The Democrat-backed bill would have also continued the $600 weekly unemployment benefits, which expired on July 31 under the CARES Act, through January, Forbes reported.
Senate Republicans want to slash the $600 benefit in order to ensure people don’t earn more in unemployment than if they went back to work, The Associated Press reported.
Trump tweeted on Friday in support of extending the $600 unemployment benefit for a short period.
“Very disappointed in @SenSchumer for blocking the temporary extension of the $600 unemployment benefits,” Trump wrote. “The Do Nothing Democrats are more interested in playing politics than in helping our deserving people.”
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the proposed one-week extension did not adequately reflect the “the gravity of the problem” and shows Republicans “don’t realize how big (the bill) has to be,” CBS reported.
Around 30 million Americans are getting unemployment payments as the pandemic shutters businesses and people lose their jobs, The New York Times reported.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 10:20 AM with the headline "Mitch McConnell is ‘prepared to support’ $600 unemployment benefit if Trump supports."