U.S.’ jobless aid enough for 3 weeks, state says

Arkansas has scaled back a proposal to provide an extra $300 in weekly unemployment payments to qualified jobless residents, with current plans to limit the supplemental payments to just the next few weeks.

That approach is drawing attention from legislative leaders who say they were not aware the supplemental payments would be made over such a short time period.

Commerce Secretary Mike Preston said Wednesday that the state is constrained by financial limitations imposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is funding the program. Preston said Arkansas and every state participating in the program is under spending limitations.

FEMA is requiring states in need of more funding under the Lost Wages Assistance program to reapply weekly after the initial round of funding runs dry, according to documents the agency has sent to participating states.

“This has certainly been a very choppy process,” Preston said in an interview Wednesday.

FEMA provided Arkansas with $79 million that Preston said will cover the supplemental benefits for only three weeks — and one payment already has been distributed.

“That’s all that we’ve been given approval for by FEMA,” he added. “After three weeks, as a state, we’d have to decide if we want to go back and apply

for additional funds.”

State Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, said he was not aware of the limitations on the program and noted legislators will likely probe deeper at an Arkansas Legislative Council meeting scheduled for Friday.

“I would not be surprised if questions come up at the Legislative Council on Friday,” Hendren said Wednesday. “This is something the Legislature certainly will want to be aware of because we’ll get a bunch of phone calls about it.”

FEMA is now imposing stricter spending limitations,

but when the Lost Wages Assistance program was rolled out last month, federal and state officials emphasized that the $300 weekly supplemental payments would be available until the $44 billion in federal funding ran out or until Dec. 27. And officials said at the time that qualified jobless applicants would receive payments retroactive to Aug. 1.

Arkansas Senate Democratic leader Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, was not pleased with the current process, saying he did not know the program would be so limited and that he was under the impression the payments would be retroactive to Aug. 1.

“I have asked questions and sought information from the

[Division] of Workforce Services for weeks regarding this, and I have been unable to get a straight story,” Ingram said Wednesday. “Our people are hurting, they need these dollars, and it’s just further disappointing to learn this could only last three weeks.”

The Division of Workforce Services, which is under Preston and the Commerce Department, is responsible for processing and paying unemployment benefits in Arkansas.

Preston said he understands the careful approach FEMA is taking to make sure the available funding is used wisely. Through conversations with colleagues in other states, he said, he learned Arkansas is not alone in receiving limited

funding.

“I’m not surprised,” he said of Arkansas only receiving three weeks of funding. “I know they were watching the money very carefully.”

More than 71,000 Arkansans have received the $300 weekly supplement, with payments beginning last week, according to Preston. Workforce Services, he said, is updating certifications daily for eligible participants.

“We want to make sure that’s spread across the three weeks and that we’re not leaving anybody out,” he said of the available funding.

At this point, Preston said, he couldn’t say for certain whether Arkansas would be eligible to apply for additional

FEMA funding because the program requires a 25% match from the state. Arkansas has been using its regular unemployment benefit payments to meet the match, but that certification requires ensuring eligible jobless applicants are out of work because of coronavirus-related layoffs or job cuts.

Fewer workers seem to be saying they have lost work because of the pandemic, which would lower the state’s ability to meet the match, Preston said. “We have to do the math on a week-by-week basis,” he added.

The Lost Wages Assistance program is unusual in two key aspects: It was started because of an executive order from the president, rather than funding from Congress; and the money

is coming through FEMA, not the Department of Labor, which typically is the federal agency handling unemployment issues.

Although he was critical of the lack of information given to legislators, Ingram noted it could be because of problems created by federal officials.

“This could very well be a situation that state officials were slow to respond because they didn’t have clear guidance from the federal level,” Ingram said.

Hendren noted that “There’s a lot of short-term uncertainty in this environment because we have to wait for assistance from the federal government and their agencies.”