WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are moving to cut the expiring $600 weekly federal unemployment bonus to $200 per week in a new coronavirus aid package that is expected to be released as early as Monday, according to three senior GOP aides familiar with the details.
The $200 flat benefit would last for two months as states transition to a system that grants unemployed people 70 percent of their wages prior to losing their job, the aides said.
To mitigate concerns that a wage replacement structure is too complicated to set up, the proposal is expected to let states apply for a waiver with the Department of Labor to continue the flat payments for up to two additional months if they cannot meet the deadline to switch the formula.
“They can all do this transition, will just take some time, so we are giving them time,” one of the aides said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to describe unreleased details of a bill.
The proposal, which is not yet official and comes amid an intraparty clash over the next round of relief, is set to be the opening salvo from Republicans in negotiations that have yet to begin with Democrats, who have passed an extension of the $600 payment in the House through January.
Republicans widely oppose continuing that figure, arguing it provides a disincentive for jobless Americans to return to work. They cite a June 4 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the $600 bonus would exceed the salaries that about five of every six recipients could expect if they were working during the next six months.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the ranking member of the Finance Committee, said $200 wasn’t enough.
“The White House is once again showing that it has zero understanding of the desperation of unemployed Americans. My message to Republicans is this: if you think $200 a week is enough to live on, you try it first,” he wrote on Twitter.
Michael Zona, a spokesman for Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would not confirm the details of the unemployment provisions, or other aspects of the bill, on Monday morning. It is expected to cost around $1 trillion and include money for schools and a new round of direct payments.
But Zona publicly dismissed Wyden’s argument against the $200 figure.
“To call this misleading would be generous. A federal benefit of $200/week would be *in addition to* hundreds in state benefits,” he wrote in response to the Democrat’s tweet. “No unemployed American is being asked to live on $200 a week.”
The issue comes with added urgency as the $600 benefit is slated to expire on July 31, although some states have said that, due to administrative reasons, the last payments would have gone out last weekend if the program is not extended. In addition, a federal moratorium on evictions ended last Friday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said it was past time to begin talks.
“I call upon the Republican leadership of the House and Senate and representatives of the President to come to the Speaker’s Office and join Leader [Chuck] Schumer and me within a half an hour of releasing their plan today to negotiate and get the job done,” she said in a statement Monday.
One of the Senate Republican aides doubted that the Democratic-endorsed policy to pay some people more than their previous job did was “a sustainable position.”
“We may not end up at $200, but no way a deal gets done at $600 or very close to it,” the aide said.
Julie Tsirkin contributed.
