State officials hope federal money continues to flow to unemployed

With Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate at 13% and the coronavirus showing no signs of being tamed, officials with the the commonwealth’s Department of Labor and Industry urgently hoped Congress will renew $600 in weekly aid to unemployed Americans once it runs out at the end of this week.
“We are hoping for federal action,” said Susan Dickinson, director of the office of Unemployment Compensation Benefits Policy. Dickinson said her office would be able to continue dispersing the federal dollars if the program remains as is and be able to pivot if Congress approves a plan that would alter the program.
“It would be much easier for our staff to continue as it is,” Dickinson said.
The Federal Unemployment Compensation Program pays an extra $600 in benefits every week to Americans who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was approved in March as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act, and supplements benefits that are provided through state unemployment programs. State benefits have been extended to 39 weeks rather than 26 as a result of the CARES Act.
Since March, more than $26 billion has gone to unemployed Pennsylvanians.
In a weekly conference call with reporters, Dickinson and Jerry Oleksiak, Pennsylvania’s labor and industry secretary, addressed a number of topics related to unemployment in Pennsylvania that has been sparked by the coronavirus. Picking up on a topic discussed in last week’s call, they said that 92% of Pennsylvanians who had applied for benefits in the last four months have either received payments or their cases have been resolved, a 2% increase from last week.
“I urge everyone to contact their representatives. We are certainly hopeful that the federal government will extend these benefits,” Oleksiak said.
They also addressed a proposal by U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, a Philadelphia-area Democrat, that National Guard troops, students or legislators be used to supplement workers in processing enormous numbers of unemployment claims.
“We talked about the pros and cons of it, and that is not a viable option,” Oleksiak said, pointing out outside personnel would still need to undergo “the same training as anyone else,” plus there are regulations that limit the types of information these temporary employees would be able to see.