Benefits expire; shutdown no looms
On hold are $600 direct payments to children and adults.
The COVID-19 relief bill remained unsigned by President Trump on Sunday evening, leaving key federal unemployment benefifits expired and raising the possibility of an end- of-theyear government shutdown that could impact local federal jobs.
The relief bill waiting for Trump’s signature offffffffffffers an extra $300-a-week in benefifits through March 14.
A lingering potential complication: If Trump does not relent and sign the bill, the U.S. government runs out ofmoney atmidnight Dec. 28.
The two expired unemployment programs are the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, available mostly to the self-employed, temporary gig workers and others who are not usually eligible for state unemployment aid. The other, Pandemic Emergency Unemploy
ment Compensation, provided up to 13 weeks of additional payments to those who have exhausted other benefifits.
While the bill remains in limbo, $600direct payments forqualifyingadultsand$600 for eachdependentandchild areonhold. Trumphasurged Congress to raise those payments to $2,000.
Aspokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said the state is declining to comment at length on the federal relief bill until Trump signs it and theU.S. Department ofLabor interprets its provisions for states.
“We are closely examining the legislation Congress enacted extending the pandemic unemployment programs and benefifits created under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act,” said TomBetti, an ODJFS spokesman. “As soon as we receive guidance from theU.S. Department ofLabor on some of the details, we will implement the newprovisions as quickly as possible so we can assist those in need.”
ODJFS “system programming” will be needed to implement any new benefifits, Betti added.“We ask for everyone’s patience as we undertake that effffffffffffort. Ohio stands readyto assist thosein need as quickly as we can.”
Theway toattainor regain benefits that have expired isn’t clear.
If the government shuts down, tens of thousands of workerscouldbefurloughed, possibly affffffffffffecting nonessentialworkers atWright-PattersonAirForceBaseandacross the federal government.
It was unclear Sunday whether Wright-Patterson has any instructions on how
to implement or navigate a governmentshutdown. Questions were sent to a spokeswoman for the 88thAir Base Wing, the organization that overseesbase infrastructure, securityandotheroperations. The base is a regional economic engine and the state’s largest single-site employer withmore than 30,000military and civilianemployees.
More than 22 million American jobs were lost in the spring as the COVID-19 pandemic was first keenly felt domestically. About 12 million of those jobs have been recovered through last month, but unemployment remains quite high nationally and statewide.
A Brookings Institution report this month found that some 10millionworkers would lose unemployment compensation on Dec. 26.
Ohioans filed just over 274,000 claims for jobless benefifits last week. Over the past 40 weeks, the state has paid outmore than $7.6 billion in unemployment compensationpayments tomore than 875,000 residents, according to numbers from the state.
Meanwhile, the globalpandemic remains an ongoing concern. Accordingto thelatest numbers offffffffffffered Sunday by the Ohio Department of Health, Ohiohasseen605,214 confifirmed COVID-19 cases,
with 5,857 of those cases counted as new, the lowest number of new cases since Dec. 16.
The state also reported 33 deaths and 273 hospitalizations Sunday, bringing the total number of dead to 8,509 and total hospitalizations to 36,786.
“It’s nine months into this,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine saidSunday on the “Face theNation” programonCBS. “People are tiredof it, so I get it. Andwe’ve askedpeople to make sacrififices. Butmymessage to the people of Ohio continues to be, we should do everythingwe can to save lives, and hope is there. The vaccine is here.”
He added: “This is not the time to pull back. This is not the time to give up. We also have to try to work that balance becausewe knowwith a complete shutdown, we know there’s downsides to that as well.”