New legislation extends benefits for thousands of Ohioians
Several hundred thousand Ohioans will continue to receive federal extended unemployment benefits after President Donald Trump during the weekend signed legislation passed by Congress that will provide additional weeks and additional money for those whose jobs were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hours after the extended benefits expired, President Trump on Sunday signed the relief package passed last week by Congress that provides aid for those who have exhausted state jobless claims as well as for those self-employed and contract workers who generally did not qualify for unemployment assistance.
Congress created the programs in March when the pandemic began forcing shutdowns of various economic sectors.
Statewide, for the pre-holiday week ending Dec. 19, continuing claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance totaled 481,088, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported. In addition, more than 120,000 people received Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, or extended weeks of benefits, for the week ending Dec. 19.
Those were in addition to the 185,825 new or continuing claims filed under regular Ohio unemployment-insurance provisions. A year earlier, those regular claims totaled 68,283 for the same week. With the increase in COVID-19 cases in the past month, states are processing increases in jobless claims.
Nationwide, estimates range from 12 million to 14 million unemployed people who would have lost pandemic-related benefits if the programs were not extended.
The legislation passed by the Senate and House last week would provide $300 weekly in extended unemployment benefits, through March 14, and would increase the number of weeks that an individual can claim benefits from a maximum of 39 weeks to a maximum of 50 weeks.
Trump at first said he objected to the bill because it did too little for Americans while giving billions to foreign governments and others. For instance, he said he wanted a $2,000 stimulus payment for each American, not the $600 provided in the bill.
“Many people are back to work, but my job is not done until everyone is back to work,” Trump said in a statement upon signing the legislation.
The $892 billion pandemic-related stimulus package was contained in a $2.3 trillion appropriations bill, the remainder of which would fund the government through Sept. 30. The stimulus amount is less than half of the $2.2 trillion aid package approved by Congress at the beginning of the pandemic.
The 5,593-page bill was approved just hours after it was released Dec. 21—meaning that most legislators couldn’t read it. The Senate Historical Office said it’s the longest bill passing Congress that they could find record of, the Associated Press reported.
