Turner’s resolution seeks end to COVID unemployment funds
State Rep. Chris Turner said he has no quarrel with the original intent of a Congressional decision upping unemployment benefits for workers laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with the pandemic waning, it’s time for extra money to stop, and for people to go back to work.
To that end, Turner is asking the Louisiana Legislature to tell Congress to discontinue the pandemic unemployment money that critics say is allowing able-bodied workers to stay home.
Turner’s House Concurrent Resolution 109 is awaiting action from the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee. The House passed the resolution on Tuesday by a vote of 69 to 24.
A resolution carries no force of law; it simply expresses an intent. Lawmakers have less than a week to act before the session ends on June 10.
“My point is I’m all for giving somebody a hand up if they need it, but this (resolution) is for people who are just not returning to work,” Turner said.
Supporters of the resolution say the extra $300-per-week in federal unemployment added to Louisiana’s $247-per-week in jobless means anyone who wasn’t making at least $13.68 per hour is making more money staying at home than they were on the job.
The result has strapped some businesses to the point that they’ve been unable to fully reopen because they don’t have enough staff.
“It’s never been this hard to find candidates that are looking for work,” Audra Mahoney, Ruston branch manager of Advantage Resourcing, said.
Mahoney said she spent more than two hours Thursday making phone calls to find two people whose jobs the employment agency was trying to fill for a client. Whereas in the past she may have made five telephone calls to find workers, Mahoney said now it’s taking five times as many attempts.
And, it isn’t just restaurant or retail openings that are hard to fill, she said.
“It’s everything,” Mahoney said.
Like Turner, Mahoney said she realizes that people who worked in some sectors that have not yet rebounded may still need help.
But she said stopping the $300 in federal aid would “100% for sure” make it easier to find workers.
What was originally $600 in weekly federal benefits went into effect in March 2020 as part of the CARES Act. The amount was cut to $300 in March of this year with the enactment of the American Rescue Plan.
The extra aide is scheduled to end after Sept. 6. Though some states stopped participating in the supplement unemployment benefit program, so far Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has said he doesn’t intend to opt out.
