Unemployed people in the United States will not receive a $ 400 per week supplement supplement if their states refuse to cover 25% of that amount. This was announced by the head of the National Economic Council of the White House Lawrence Kudlow on Sunday, August 9, on the air of the CNN television company.
Kudlow was asked to clarify the provisions of one of four decrees that US President Donald Trump signed the day before to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic on Americans. In particular, journalists were interested in whether the federal government of the United States really guarantees the premium only if the local authorities allocate a quarter of the above amount, to which Kudlow replied in the affirmative.
At the same time, he promised that the department would redirect funds from other areas of the economy to pay for the federal part of the grant. “We estimate that the states have the option of providing an additional $ 100,” he said.
According to Kudlow, the allocation of funds will be suspended only if the economic council declares a state of emergency.
At Trump’s request, the aid consists of $ 300 from the federal budget and $ 100 from the state budget. Earlier on Sunday, the president announced a year-end extension of these benefits.
Earlier, on August 7, negotiations between the White House and the Democratic majority in Congress were deadlocked. Trump insisted on reducing the amount of unemployment benefits from $ 600 to $ 400.
The American leader signed a $ 2 trillion stimulus bill on March 28 amid the spread of the coronavirus. It was noted as the largest government aid package in American history. The measures included, among other things, that every adult in the United States would receive a one-time aid of $ 1200.
As of the end of March, the number of unemployed in the United States after the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic was 3.3 million. In late May, Bloomberg analysts predicted the strongest surge in unemployment for the United States since the Great Depression. The rise in unemployment in this country could rise to 19.6%, which would be the highest in 100 years.