Aid project: here’s what will happen if Trump doesn’t sign Covid’s $ 900 billion package

The legislation would extend two pandemic unemployment programs and provide the unemployed with a federal incentive of $ 300 a week until mid-March. He would send direct payments of up to $ 600 per person. This would reopen the Paycheck Protection Program so that some of the most affected small businesses could apply for a second loan.
The package, which would be the second largest relief agreement after the $ 2 trillion CARES Act that Congress passed in March, would also extend protection against eviction and increase food stamp benefits.
More than 12 million laid-off Americans could lose their unemployment benefits after this weekend if Trump doesn’t sign the law. And even if you do, they will likely experience a disruption in payments for several weeks.

As part of the historic expansion of unemployment benefits under the CARES Act, lawmakers created three programs to help unemployed Americans. While the $ 600 payout only lasted until July, the other two expire shortly after Christmas.

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program allows independent contractors, self-employed workers and temporary workers to qualify for payments. It also opens the program for those who cannot work because of the pandemic, including if they or their family members are sick or quarantined or if their children’s schools are closed.

About 9.3 million people filed for action under this program in early December, according to the latest data from the Department of Labor.

In addition, Congress created the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits paid by the federal government to those left without state payments, which normally last 26 weeks. Nearly 4.8 million long-term unemployed workers were on this program earlier this month, according to the Department of Labor.

If these two main programs expire, payments will end for more than 12 million Americans, according to an analysis by The Century Foundation.

But even if Trump signs the legislation, it will still take a few weeks for state unemployment agencies to reprogram their computers to continue these two programs and add the new $ 300 weekly federal incentive, said Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst under the National Insurance Act. Project work. They would first have to receive guidance from the Department of Labor with the new rules.

Although benefits are retroactive, the unemployed will be left with no payment until their states are ready.

Eviction protection

An order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that went into effect in September temporarily suspended evictions until the end of the year. The request, which was spurred by an executive measure Trump signed over the summer, applies to renters who meet certain income requirements, experienced significant income losses and made their best efforts to find rental assistance and pay the rent.
Since the order does not cancel or freeze the rent, all of the tenant’s late rent will expire on January 1 if the moratorium expires. Without rent relief or an extension of protection, many ailing tenants will again face eviction.
Maricopa County Police Officer Darlene Martinez sends an eviction order for nonpayment of rent on October 1 in Phoenix, Arizona.  (Photo by John Moore / Getty Images)

It is estimated that 9.2 million tenants who lost income from employment during the pandemic are behind in rent, or 23% of such tenants, according to an analysis of data from the Census Bureau of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities .

The aid package would extend eviction protection until January 31 and provide $ 25 billion in rental assistance to those who lost their sources of income during the pandemic.

Coronavirus aid funds for states

Congress provided state and local governments with $ 150 billion to help cover expenses related to the coronavirus. But states must use these funds by December 30.

States are on track to spend all funds on time, according to a survey by the National Governors Association in 42 states and territories. Most of the money was used for health-related expenses, financial aid, education and daycare and government spending.

The package would give states and localities another year to spend the money.

CNN’s Katie Lobosco contributed to this story.

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