Feds end $300 pandemic jobless benefit for Texans

Austin American-Statesman (TX)

The extra $300 a week in federal unemployment benefits for Texans who lost income due to the pandemic has come to an end after a six-week run.

Texas officials were told Wednesday that money for the Lost Wages Assistance Program, operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is no longer available, making last week's payment the final installment in the program.

Texans who qualify for other forms of unemployment assistance will continue to receive those benefits, the Texas Workforce Commission said.

"This decision was made by FEMA," the Texas agency said in a notice to unemployment benefits recipients. "TWC cannot provide additional funds without further federal action."

The extra $300 a week went to about 1.8 million Texans who certified that their income loss was due to the pandemic and who were already receiving at least $100 a week in unemployment benefits.

FEMA provided Texas with $3.2 billion under the program.

To date, almost $2.3 billion has been paid out, with the remaining money available for claims that have yet to be filed. Texans request unemployment benefits every two weeks.

For those who have not yet requested payment for the week ending last Saturday, when the program ended, the extra $300 will be paid "as long as the existing FEMA funds deposited to TWC remain available," agency spokesman Cisco Gamez said Thursday.

"The program had always been temporary and was expected to last until funding ended, new legislation passed or the program expired," Gamez said.

A legislative response, however, appeared dim amid a continuing partisan impasse over proposals for the next round of coronavirus relief, with congressional Republicans and Democrats far apart on the cost of proposed packages that would include additional jobless benefits during the pandemic.

Senate Republicans, who have rejected a $3 trillion package supported by House Democrats as excessive, pushed a $300 billion plan that was blocked Thursday as Democrats criticized the proposal as inadequate.

The $300 weekly payments were made available through an executive order signed last month by President Donald Trump after Congress deadlocked on a pandemic relief package to follow the CARES Act, which provided a $600-per-week federal supplement to state jobless benefits through the end of July.

Trump's order initially required a $100 weekly state match to access the $300 federal benefit, leading cash-strapped states to question their ability to meet the demand.

After the U.S. Labor Department determined that the state match was discretionary, Texas applied to join the program, receiving FEMA approval on Aug. 21.

Texas officials opted not to provide the additional $100 week, and the $300 payments were backdated to begin for benefits requests for the week ending Aug. 1 -- continuing for six weeks until the week ending Sept. 5.

Although the CARES Act's pandemic-related $600 a week benefit stopped at the end of July, the Texas Workforce Commission said other unemployment provisions will continue through Dec. 26 for qualifying Texans, including an extra 13 weeks of payments for those who exhaust traditional benefits and up to 46 weeks of payments to self-employed Texans who would not otherwise qualify for state benefits.

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