GOP: Jobless aid hurting economy

15 states planning to slash benefits

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 900,000 Americans in Alabama, Mississippi and 13 other Republican-led states are set to see their unemployment checks slashed dramatically starting in June, as GOP governors seek to restrict jobless benefits in an effort to force more people to return to work.

The cuts are likely to fall hardest on more than half a million people who benefit from stimulus programs adopted by Congress at the height of the pandemic, including one targeting those who either are self-employed or work on behalf of gig-economy companies such as Uber. Beginning next month, many of these workers are likely to receive no aid at all.

The looming cutoff reflects an emerging campaign on the part of GOP leaders to combat what they see as a national worker shortage. Governors in states including Mississippi, Montana and Tennessee contend that generous federal benefits parceled out over the past year have deterred people from returning to their old positions now that the public-health crisis is waning and businesses are reopening.

The reality is more complicated, labor experts say. The slowdown in hiring may instead reflect workers' concerns about their safety and difficulties in obtaining child care, or their trouble finding suitable positions in hard-hit industries like tourism on top of mounting frustration over wages they see as too low.

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As of Thursday afternoon, at least 15 GOP-led states have announced plans to slash benefits: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.

Starting next month, roughly 273,000 of these states' workers are set to see their payments fall by $300 each week, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal claims data released Thursday. Millions of Americans have received the extra allotment as a result of a federal stimulus program Congress adopted earlier this year. In these 13 GOP-led states, however, out-of-work residents soon will be able to collect only as much as their unemployment insurance programs allowed prior to the pandemic, which in some parts of the country is well below poverty-level wages.

For a second group of about 268,000 workers, their governors' cuts mean they stand to lose all of their benefits outright. This includes out-of-work Uber drivers and others who are self employed. These workers had obtained aid for the first time under a second stimulus initiative, known as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, but their states are ending participation in the effort.

A final group of about 340,000 workers who collect traditional unemployment benefits each week similarly may see their benefits reduced to zero. These Americans currently rely on a federal program that pays them extra weeks of jobless support even if they have exhausted their states' annual allotments. Republican governors are cutting their participation in this effort as well, leaving workers who have been unemployed for prolonged periods with potentially no options remaining to obtain aid.

For unemployed workers like Stephanie Pannell, a 53-year-old single mother in Harrison, the Republicans' efforts threatened to deliver another financial blow in what has already been a grueling year. The pandemic aid has been a financial lifeline for her and her 14-year-old son, paying them $419 a week after taxes -- just enough to cover her $700 rent and take care of other living expenses but little else.

But on May 7, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced the state plans to cut recipients off the program after June 26. "For us to lose this is going to be catastrophic, because this is how we've made it," said Parnell, who receives funds through Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. "People are like, 'You don't want to work.' Are you crazy? I want to work because I can make a lot more than this pittance. But because of my son's health, I cannot risk it ... They're acting like they're giving us gold bullion."

On Thursday, the Labor Department said that 473,000 Americans had filed new state unemployment insurance claims last week, marking another pandemic low.

The state cuts follow a week after the U.S. government reported slower-than-anticipated hiring in April. Even as the country ramped up its efforts to vaccinate millions of Americans -- and states began to lift their business restrictions -- the economy added 266,000 jobs last month, far fewer than expected.

Congressional Republicans held a news conference at the Capitol on Thursday where they called on Congress to adopt legislation that would phase out the stimulus programs before they are set to expire this fall. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he had heard from businesses in his state that say they are struggling to find new applicants because jobless benefits are "creating an incentive for people not to return to work."

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