Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has introduced a bill that would extend the $600 federal unemployment weekly benefits that are scheduled to sunset at the end of July.
The proposal, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the Heroes Act that passed the House passed in June. It's a part of the $3 trillion that passed in the House in May.
If it passes in the Senate, it would push those $600 weekly payments through January.
The Congressional Budget Office predicted that not extending the payments would harm the overwhelming majority of unemployed people in the United States.
"When we passed the CARES Act over two months ago, Democrats knew that the extra $600 in weekly unemployment assistance was only a temporary salve for struggling Americans. We had hoped the economy would be able to bounce back and unemployment would quickly go down. Clearly that is not the case today," Schumer said.
In all, 76% of unemployed workers and 12% of those currently working receive benefits in July. About 19 million people this month are expected to receive unemployment benefits.
If the benefits expire, women and people of color will likely take the hardest financial hit.
“By the end of this month, those emergency unemployment benefits will expire, but unfortunately, the high levels of unemployment will not. Without an extension of enhanced benefits, Americans struggling without work will have their legs cut out from under them at the worst possible time: in the middle of a raging pandemic," Schumer said.
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