Federal unemployment assistance officially ends with no formal plans for continuation
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed Republicans for dragging their feet and trying to implement a short term solution.
After 13 weeks of supplementing state unemployment, the federal government’s pandemic unemployment assistance has officially ended as of last night.
While Congress had been working on a plan to extend the much-needed assistance for the past few weeks, Democrats and Republicans were not able to come to an understanding.
“What we’re seeing is politics as usual from Democrats up on Capitol Hill,” said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to USA Today.
“The Democrats believe that they have all the cards on their side, and they’re willing to play those cards at the expense of those that are hurting,” he continued.
READ MORE: Unemployment benefits are making people stay at home, according to Republicans
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed Republicans for dragging their feet and trying to implement a short term solution while so many people are currently dealing with serious effects of the coronavirus.
“They do not understand the gravity of the situation,” Pelosi said. “We don’t have shared values. That’s just the way it is.”
“There is clearly a desire on their part to do an entire package,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, according to Reuters. “We’ve made clear that we are willing to deal with the short-term issues and pass something quickly and come back to larger issues. So we are at an impasse on that.”
Pelosi said that this short-term solution would be ok if she believed in the government’s ability to create another larger bill with real solutions in a timely manner.
On Thursday, Meadows, Pelosi, Mnuchin, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a meeting to see if they could make a quick deal so that there would be no lapse in benefits for the millions of Americans on unemployment. No such deal was made.
READ MORE: GOP proposal calls for unemployment benefits to be cut from $600 to $200
President Donald Trump tweeted that “Pelosi & Schumer have no interest in making a deal that is good for our Country and our People. All they want is a trillion dollars, and much more, for their Radical Left Governed States, most of which are doing very badly.”
This morning, Meadows, Pelosi, Mnuchin and Schumer met again. Through a new deal hasn’t been written, there are meetings scheduled for tomorrow and Monday to hammer things out, according to Schumer.
“This was the longest meeting we had and it was more productive than the other meetings,” said Schumer, according to Reuters. “There are many issues that are still very much outstanding.”
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