After more than a week’s worth of meetings, Congress is still trying to break an impasse in bipartisan Washington talks on a huge COVID-19 response bill, with much of the discussion focusing on whether to extend a $600-per-week supplemental pandemic federal jobless benefit that lapsed last week.
The drawn-out talks in Washington continued as more than 1 million people sought jobless aid for the 20th straight week, intensifying concerns the resurgent coronavirus is stalling or even reversing the economic recovery, The Associated Press reported.
Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., who is seeking a second term representing Indiana’s Sixth Congressional District, including Bartholomew County, has expressed opposition to the $600-per-week benefit in the past, but wouldn’t directly answer questions this week about what should be included in a relief package or whether he supports a new round of $1,200 direct payments to Americans.
When asked by The Republic what types of items he would like to see in a new relief package and whether he supports $1,200 direct payments to most Americans and an extension of the $600-per-week jobless benefit, Pence said, through his communications director, “There is way too much speculation on the bill to have an opinion as of now.”
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However, Pence called COVID-19 unemployment relief “a disaster” during a speech last month to the Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, according to The Muncie Star Press.
“That $600 is keeping people from coming back to work right now, even though they have a business,” The Star Press quoted the congressman as saying. “If these employees could come back they could be ramping up even more, but they’re not coming back because in Indiana, at $393 for unemployment and $600 for this supplemental, that’s $1,000 a week, or like $56,000 a year, and that is a lot more than an entry-level job.”
As an example, Pence pointed to a part-time employee at his wife Denise’s antique mall, who the congressman claimed was making $50 a week before the pandemic but with the supplemental unemployment benefit was bringing in $650 per week as of last month “because even part-time people can get it.”
Pence has tweeted praise for the Paycheck Protection Program, an emergency loan program created to help small businesses retain workers and pay bills during the pandemic. It was part of the $2.2 trillion economic package passed by Congress earlier this year.
Last month, Congress extended the Paycheck Protection Program until Friday.
Democratic nominee Jeannine Lee Lake, who is challenging Pence this November, said she supports extending the $600 weekly unemployment benefit because many people in Indiana are experiencing “unprecedented hardships.”
“Unlike my opponent, who called unemployment benefits to hard-working Hoosiers ‘a disaster’ and has indicated that he will not vote again for $600 weekly unemployment benefits for hardworking Hoosiers, I do think that in the middle of a pandemic we do need to give our struggling families and struggling mothers and fathers as much help as they can possibly get,” Lake said. “Some of these families are facing unprecedented hardships. They’re facing mortgages that are coming due, rent that’s coming due, utilities that are coming due, car payments that are coming due.”
Lake said she would support a bill authorizing, among other things, an estimated $200 billion in hazard pay for essential workers, $75 billion for coronavirus testing and contact tracing, extending help to renters and homeowners and increasing the maximum amount of food stamp benefits, potentially through the rest of the year.
Lake also questioned the necessity of a Trump administration’s desire to include $377 million in the next coronavirus relief bill for a long-delayed modernization of the West Wing.
The proposed funding for renovations, which was reported by The Associated Press last week, also would include a new security screening facility for the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex. It is unclear if the White House is still pushing for the funding.
“We’ve got to provide people with encouragement that the government does care about them in the middle of this medical crisis that nobody asked for,” Lake said.
A total of 218,351 people were receiving unemployment benefits in Indiana as of July 25, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was down from 228,226 the previous week. In Bartholomew County, a total of 2,016 received jobless aid the week ending July 18, the latest data available, down from 2,110 the week before, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
On Thursday, Senate Republicans unveiled a $1 trillion package that would replace the $600 with an amount that would bring a laid-off worker’s jobless benefits to 70% of their previous income. Both parties have agreed on another $1,200 stimulus check.
Democrats in the House approved a $3 trillion package last month that would extend the $600 through January. Given the limited time available, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged a bill dealing with jobless benefits and aid to schools be considered next week.
Democrats say the Republican plans are not enough, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is staking out a hard line on extending a $600-per-week jobless benefit.
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For an update on the talks to find agreement on a COVID-19 relief bill, see Page A6.
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