This week Joint Economic Committee Vice Chair Don Beyer (D-VA) and Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) unveiled the legislative framework for the Worker Relief and Security Act. Leading economists, policy experts, and top House Democrats swiftly backed the legislation, which would use automatic triggers to ensure that expanded unemployment benefits continue to flow to workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic for the duration of the public health and economic crisis. Former Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew: "Crushing levels of unemployment are likely to linger even as some businesses start to open, and workers who lose their jobs need unemployment benefits until the job market gets close to pre-crisis levels. Extending unemployment benefits will bolster the economy and protect millions of households from financial ruin and serious hardship. The Worker Relief and Security Act importantly recognizes the need to maintain critical unemployment benefit expansions while there are simply not sufficient jobs available for everyone looking for work, and to phase the benefits out as the economy approaches normal so workers can either return to their old jobs or find new ones." Former Chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen:
“An unthinkable 30 million American workers have already been displaced by the pandemic and the count continues to rise. They need relief and support for as long as the job market remains weak. That’s not only fair. It’s essential to support an economic recovery. The Worker Relief and Security Act is important because it guarantees that the CARES Act’s critical unemployment benefits will remain in place for however long they’re needed.” Former Chair of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke: “I strongly support a plan that would tie the generosity of unemployment benefits to measures of the unemployment rate. Such an approach delivers help quickly and automatically as needed, without Congress having to act, and likewise winds down extra assistance as conditions improve. This approach would not only help the unemployed in a timely way, it would also tend to stabilize the broader economy by increasing purchasing power in times of high unemployment.” National Economic Advisor to President Obama and President Clinton, Gene Sperling:
"If we are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure the economic dignity and security of our workers and families during this nearly unprecedented crisis, the single most important policy may be an extension of a robust unemployment benefit that is tied not to an arbitrary date, but to when our job market and public health response is strong enough to let tens of millions safely return to work. Ensuring that all workers who are jobless, or facing reduced hours due to the crisis, have a benefit that helps them pay their bills, stay in their homes, and support themselves and their families must be our first priority both in terms of our values and economic common sense. Bold ideas to ensure more Americans stay on the payrolls of their employers if done fairly and effectively can also be a critical policy tool for achieving these vital goals, but even those important policies must be a complement not substitute to a national commitment to tying the length and robustness of unemployment benefits to the health of our labor market."
Chair of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Jason Furman: "Expanded and extended unemployment insurance is the most important economic response to the crisis we are in today. It is critical that it continue as long as it is needed. Unfortunately in the past, Congress has allowed expanded unemployment insurance to lapse prematurely, most recently in the wake of the global financial crisis even when long-term unemployment was at near record levels. That is why the Worker Relief and Security Act is so critical, because it would ensure that assistance is continued as long as it is needed, something that would be good for workers and also good for the macroeconomy as a whole, helping to speed the recovery and healing of the economy. Rather than pretending we know exactly what will happen in our economic future, the legislation smartly makes support and assistance contingent on what actually happens. This approach is long overdue."
Workers in states with extraordinary unemployment or elevated levels of unemployment would be eligible for additional benefits on top of regular benefits based on the 3-month average of the state’s unemployment rate. The bill would also fix the PUA program to ensure workers who fall between the cracks of the traditional unemployment assistance do not fall between the cracks of the program meant to support them.