Washington, D.C.—Today, at a U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) hearing on boosting economic confidence and reducing uncertainty during the coronavirus, Vice Chair Don Beyer (D-VA) called on Congress to automate enhanced unemployment benefits, SNAP, Medicaid and other supports families need during the current economic crisis and future ones by tying them to the unemployment rate. This would ensure that such supports continue as long as they are needed without the need for a vote by Congress.

Yesterday, Vice Chair Beyer introduced with Congressman Derek Kilmer (D-WA) the Worker Relief and Security Act, legislation that would provide enhanced unemployment benefits to those who are out of work until the unemployment rate in their states returns to pre-crisis levels. The legislation is based on a legislative framework released in May that was developed with Kilmer, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), and has received the support of leading economists—including former Federal Reserve Chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke, as well the Democratic witnesses for today’s hearing, Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein.

As Vice Chair Beyer, Boushey and Bernstein explained during the hearing, automating support in this way boosts economic confidence and reduces economic uncertainty for families, businesses and state and local governments, helping to promote economic recovery.

Vice Chair Beyer said:

“In an economic crisis like the one we are in now, Congress’s role is to assure families, businesses and state and local governments that they will get the support they need as long for as they need it. Currently, however, because of the petty, partisan, political posturing of Senate Republicans, tens of millions of unemployed Americans are waiting for a vote that will determine whether they can pay rent or put food on the table.

“Congress should take politics out of this and use a data-based approach instead—one that ties enhanced unemployment benefits and other similar support to economic conditions, so they ramp up when families need them and ramp down when they do not.

“Sadly, there are Members of Congress who derive their political power, even build their entire careers around forcing dramatic, dangerous showdowns on Capitol Hill. In the past, they threatened to shut down the federal government; today, they threaten to allow enhanced unemployment benefits to expire. They rob millions of Americans of help they desperately need while unemployment is sky high. When politicians play these games, real people get hurt."

Dr. Boushey said:

“Enhanced unemployment benefits should end when objective conditions show they are no longer needed. An unemployment-rate-based ‘trigger’ that only turns off when a stable recovery is underway would allow this program to wind down automatically.” (Read her full testimony here.)

Jared Bernstein said:

“By forcefully taking charge of the public health aspects of the crisis and by ensuring that fiscal relief will be there as long and as deeply as people need it, Congress can help reduce the American people’s uncertainty and economic insecurity. I strongly urge you to do so and will be happy to help in any way I can.” (Read his full testimony here.)

The hearing took place against a backdrop of negotiations between the House, Senate and White House over the next coronavirus relief package. Key differences between the House on the one side, which passed the HEROES Act on May 15, and the Senate and White House on the other, which didn't release a legislative package until late in the day on Monday, include extending enhanced unemployment benefits that expire at the end of July as well as aid for state and local governments.

Congressional Republicans are currently proposing to extend enhanced unemployment benefits but cut them from $600 to $200 until states can improve their unemployment insurance systems. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the $400 cut in benefits would reduce GDP by 2.5 percent and cost the economy 3.4 million jobs over the next year.

Vice Chair Beyer said: 

“During a global pandemic, the federal government should provide more certainty for families, businesses and state and local governments—not less. Now, because Senate Republicans let enhanced unemployment benefits lapse in the first place, they have created a financial headache for families who count on these benefits and businesses who count on the consumer spending they enable. We can and must do better for the millions of families who are counting on this support.”

Read Vice Chair Beyer’s written opening statement here.

About Congressman Beyer

Congressman Don Beyer is currently serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Northern Virginia suburbs of the nation’s capital. In addition to his role as Vice Chair of the JEC, Beyer serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means and the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Previously, Beyer served as the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and Ambassador to Switzerland, and built a successful family business over the course of four decades.

About the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee

 The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee is Congress’s bicameral economic think tank. It was created when Congress passed the Employment Act of 1946. Under this Act, Congress established two advisory panels: the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) and the JEC. Their primary tasks are to review economic conditions and to recommend improvements in economic policy.

Chairmanship of the JEC alternates between the Senate and House every Congress. Currently, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) is the Chair and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) is the Vice Chair.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), Vice Chair and top Democrat on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, issued the following statement after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allowed the Senate to adjourn for the week without passing an extension of enhanced federal unemployment benefits, which are set to lapse absent action from Congress by the end of this week:

“Senate Republicans’ failure to act will inflict enormous, unnecessary suffering on millions of Americans. If they do not act soon, we could see a new Great Depression in the United States.

“It is difficult to process the fact that, faced with perhaps our nation’s worst crisis since World War II, the Senate spent two months doing almost nothing but rubber stamping judicial and executive branch nominees. With the pandemic exploding in states they represent, the economic recovery stalling, and job losses accelerating, Senate Republicans simply refused to do anything about it.

“The damage from a lapse in enhanced federal unemployment benefits will radiate throughout the economy. Even if Republicans ultimately pass an extension, it will come too late to help those who are evicted, those who lose their jobs, businesses, or health coverage, and those who go hungry. This is a dark moment for our country.”

The CARES Act added $600 per week to state unemployment payments, with an expiration date “on or before July 31.” Because states process payments on a weekly schedule, which ends on Saturday or Sunday, and the month ends on a Friday, this is the final week to extend enhanced benefits without incurring a lapse.

Over 30 million American workers have applied for or are currently receiving those benefits, according to the Department of Labor.

The House passed the Heroes Act, which contained a provision which would extend the benefit at its current level into January. Mitch McConnell ignored the bill, saying at the time that he felt no “urgency of action.”

Senate Republicans concluded official business for the week without passing an extension, and remain unable to agree with each other and the White House about whether or how to address unemployment benefits. Their competing proposals reportedly differ on whether to reduce flat payments, or to create a new system with a complicated formula to determine the amount of each worker’s benefit. Economic analysis shows that evidence does not support Republican concerns about the $600 benefit creating a disincentive to work.

Many states use outdated systems to process unemployment benefits, which required long delays to process the initial $600 addition and could delay new payments by weeks or months to make changes suggested by Republicans.

The Brookings Institution estimated that the $600 enhanced benefit replaced half of Americans’ lost wages in the month of April. Economists say that the loss of that level of spending power will inflict widespread damage on the economy, leading to new rounds of business closures and layoffs. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that eliminating the $600 addition could cost the economy over 5 million jobs.

Rep. Beyer is the Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee and the author, with Rep. Derek Kilmer and Senators Jack Reed and Michael Bennet, of the Worker Relief and Security Act, which would use automatic stabilizers to tie federal unemployment benefits to economic conditions and the public health emergency.

Washington, D.C.—In April, when many Americans were working from home to stay safe from the coronavirus, a farmworker in California—an occupation deemed “essential” by the federal government—was worried about getting sick in the fields.

“I am afraid of potentially getting sick, then not being able to work, and then not being able to pay for my rent, food and medical bills,” the farmworker said. “We do not have any benefits on the job.”

The farmworker’s story is one of more than 50 collected by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), MomsRising, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Farm Workers (UFW) and UFW Foundation that helped inform a new report released today by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC).

The report draws together evidence and expert opinion on the health and economic costs of gaps in paid sick leave during the current coronavirus crisis. Among other findings, it concludes that:

•  The United States is the only high-income country without universal paid sick leave. As a result, before the pandemic, approximately one-quarter of American workers did not have paid sick leave at all.

• While almost all employees of large U.S. corporations have paid sick leave, less than two-thirds at companies with fewer than 50 employees have access to it. 

• More than 90 percent of the highest-wage earners have paid sick leave, while only 30 percent of the lowest-wage earners do.

• Only 58 percent of service sector workers and only 45 percent of workers in the hotel and foodservice industries have access to paid sick leave.

• Workers who do not have access to paid sick leave are three times more likely to go to work sick, delay seeking medical attention or forgo medical care altogether. 

From Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), vice chair of the JEC:

“Even before the pandemic, 36 million American workers did not have paid sick leave and were forced to choose between a paycheck and protecting their health. This perverse incentive puts many others at risk. One of the many things that this pandemic has made clear is that paid sick leave should be a right for all workers not a benefit left to the discretion of employers. We all have an overwhelming interest in making paid sick leave universal, so Americans do not have to risk exposing their co-workers and consumers to the coronavirus and other illnesses out of fear of getting fired or forgoing pay. It would be a shame if the paid sick leave provisions included in the House-passed HEROES Act do not make it into the final version of the next relief package because, as the report and stories confirm, they are sorely needed.”

From Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT):

“This report illustrates what we are witnessing in real time: gaps in our nation’s paid sick leave are not only making it more difficult to contain the coronavirus, but also, they are weakening the economic recovery. Families are forced to choose between their health, and that of their families, coworkers, and communities, and their income and job security. There has never been a more urgent need to expand paid sick days and paid leave to the workers of this country. Any final coronavirus relief package passed by Congress must close these gaps. I will continue fighting for a permanent solution to this problem that existed long before this pandemic.”

From AFSCME President Lee Saunders:

“This public health crisis makes plainer than ever that universal paid sick leave is a moral and economic imperative. It's shocking and unforgivable that it isn't already guaranteed for all working people in the United States, as it is in every other developed nation. It's time for us to finally align public policy with the realities facing working families in the 21st century. The next coronavirus relief bill must include, in addition to at least $1 trillion in state and local aid, paid leave for all—with no carve-outs, opt-outs, or workarounds for employers."

From Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families:

“Outdated policies and pervasive discrimination have long penalized women and moms in the workforce, with Black and Latinx women and moms suffering the most due to appalling structural racism that has gone unchecked. The fact that millions of workers cannot earn paid sick days and access paid family and medical leave has long harmed families, businesses and our economy, and is a significant part of the reason we were so ill-prepared for COVID-19. We applaud the Joint Economic Committee for releasing this report today. In the next coronavirus relief bill, moms want Congress to ensure all workers can earn paid sick days and access paid leave, along with quality, affordable child care, and adequate unemployment benefits. We need these policies during the health and economic crises that COVID-19 is causing and we will need them after these crises end.”

From Joyce Barnes, a home care worker for three decades and a member of SEIU Virginia 512 who lives in Sandston, Va.:

“Home care workers, most of us Black and brown women, have long been forgotten, and not just during this pandemic. Poverty wages and lack of basic benefits have made it hard to get by, let alone prepare us if we get sick. Not having sick days means we must go to work no matter how sick we get. It’s an awful choice: go to work when we're sick or get evicted because we can’t make rent.”

From UFW President Teresa Romero: 

“The nation’s food security depends on farmworkers. To mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in agricultural communities and further the health, safety and economic security of the people that feed us, the essential women and men who are required to work in agriculture need and deserve sick pay."

From UFW Foundation Executive Director Diana Tellefson Torres:

“Farm workers are highly skilled workers keeping America fed. More than 2.5 million of farm workers—half undocumented—are deemed essential during the pandemic, but most do not have essential compensation and protections, including paid sick leave, hazard pay and personal protective equipment. Most farm workers and their families are excluded from federal relief efforts due to the lack of legal status either of the farm worker or their spouse. In order to address these systemic inequities, the UFW Foundation has distributed more than 170,000 meals and more than 14,000 emergency food boxes to rural California families, and is distributing 900,000 masks and $11.6 million in cash assistance to farm workers in California, Washington and Oregon. Additionally, as one of 12 community-based nonprofit organizations selected by California to administer its Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants financial assistance program, the UFW Foundation assisted 10,867 immigrants. America cannot deem farm workers essential without providing the pay, benefits and safeguards they deserve to sustain their families and protect themselves, their loved ones, colleagues and communities from the spread of COVID-19. The HEROES Act in the House and Sen. Stabenow's Food Supply Protection Act combined with Sen. Merkley's FARM Laborers Protection Act, would go a long way in addressing the fundamental and life-saving needs of the people that feed us.”

Legislative background

HEROES Act

On May 15, 2020, the House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act, which, if passed by the Senate and signed into law, would extend emergency paid sick leave to millions of additional workers by closing carve-outs that hurt new employees, some federal employees singled out by the Office of Management and Budget, health care workers and emergency responders (who were not included in original emergency provisions) and employees at large and small companies (of greater than 500 employees and less than 50 employees). The legislation would also create a fund to support premium pay for essential workers. Finally the legislation would address widely publicized concerns about Department of Labor employer rules regarding who is and is not eligible for emergency paid sick leave and extend eligibility for non-emergency FMLA.

Congressman Beyer

Congressman Beyer has been a longtime supporter of stronger paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave policies. He is a co-sponsor of the PAID Leave Act which would permanently ensure that workers can accrue 7 paid sick days, as well as provide 14 additional days when there is a public health emergency and 12 weeks of emergency paid family and medical leave—both of which would be fully reimbursed by the federal government. He also was a lead sponsor of the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act, which was signed into law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act at the end of 2019, guaranteeing federal employees up to 12 weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child.

Congresswoman DeLauro

Congresswoman DeLauro has long pressed for paid sick days and paid family and medical leave, first introducing the Healthy Families Act in 2004 and reintroducing every Congress since and introducing the FAMILY Act in 2013 and in every Congress since. Throughout the coronavirus crisis, DeLauro has pushed for paid leave policies and helped to ensure that the Families First Coronavirus Response Act included crucial first steps in establishing a national paid leave policy. She has also introduced the PAID Leave Act, a comprehensive emergency paid sick days and paid family and medical leave bill that is fully funded by the federal government during this emergency, and continues to push for it to be a part of Congress’ continuing coronavirus response efforts.

About the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee

The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee is Congress’s bicameral economic think tank. It was created when Congress passed the Employment Act of 1946. Under this Act, Congress established two advisory panels: the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) and the JEC. Their primary tasks are to review economic conditions and to recommend improvements in economic policy.

Chairmanship of the JEC alternates between the Senate and House every Congress. Currently, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) is the chair and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) is vice chair.

Washington, D.C.—Today, Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), Vice Chair of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), released the following statement ahead of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee’s expected vote on Judy Shelton’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board.

“Judy Shelton’s extreme ideas, such as advocating a return to the gold standard, are far outside the mainstream and make her unfit to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Pegging the dollar to the price of gold was abandoned by the United States in 1971 and a return to it would have severely constrained the Fed’s aggressive response to the recession resulting from COVID-19.

“Moreover, Dr. Shelton’s past statements and writings show that she does not value the Fed or its independence. In one op-ed, Shelton asked: ‘Why do we need a central bank?’ In another, she called for a ‘more coordinated relationship’ between the Fed and the White House, something that would make it far more difficult for the Fed to pursue its policy mandates based on data and analysis and remain free from political interference. The President already badgers the Fed to cut rates to goose the economy as if it were a political arm of the White House—we do not need to put someone on the Board who thinks such ‘coordination’ is okay.

“In addition, Dr. Shelton has flipped on policy issues depending on which party controls the White House. She was a regular critic of loose monetary policy until President Trump took office. Yet during the Trump administration, she has advocated for lowering rates ‘as fast’ as possible—one reason Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell called Shelton ‘an opportunist and a quack.’

“The current economic crisis once again has underscored the critical role of the Federal Reserve and the need for strong, independent leadership at the central bank. Judy Shelton miserably flunks that test.”