Name: Trump's delay on signing the stimulus bill could have cost unemployed Americans $5.9 billion — but now new reporting suggests payments won't lapse as feared
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Trump's delay on signing the stimulus bill could have cost unemployed Americans $5.9 billion — but now new reporting suggests payments won't lapse as feared

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Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowSign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox.Something is loading.On Sunday, President Donald Trump finally signed the&nbsp; and $1.4 trillion omnibus package funding the government and avoiding a shutdown.While many of the new law's provisions will help support individual, businesses, and communities across America, Trump's delay in signing the bill for nearly a week after it was passed by Congress could have been .However, a Department of Labor spokesperson said in a statement that the agency "does not anticipate that eligible claimants will miss a week of benefits due to the timing of the law's enactment," including a $300 per week supplement boosting pay for those out of work, as reported by and on Tuesday.&nbsp;Insider calculated how much money was at risk due to the lapse, which added up to quite a few billion.First, we need to consider the pipes through which this stimulus actually gets to people.&nbsp;One of the provisions in the relief package is a weekly $300 supplement to unemployment insurance, similar to the in the spring and early summer.The just-passed bill included an 11-week extension of the $300 supplemental payments, running through March 14, 2021. But because of Trump's delay in signing the bill into law, there was a chance that the first week of those payments would have been missed, .Fortunately, it appears that the Department of Labor will prevent that from happening.The supplemental payments go out to unemployed Americans receiving benefits from traditional state-run unemployment programs, as well as two federal programs implemented in the CARES Act. The program provides unemployment benefits to workers who have exceeded their normal state unemployment benefits, while the program supports workers who would typically not be covered by traditional unemployment, like gig workers and workers directly affected by the pandemic.As of the week ending December 5, the , about 5.5 million Americans were receiving traditional unemployment, 9.3 million were receiving checks from the PUA program, and 4.8 million were receiving pandemic emergency unemployment compensation.All together, about 19.5 million Americans were receiving benefits from one of those three programs, and thus were at risk of missing out on last week's $300 supplemental pay. If Trump had signed the legislation by Saturday, that money would have automatically gone out to unemployed workers. That represents about $5.9 billion in total supplemental unemployment insurance at risk, assuming roughly similar numbers of Americans receiving benefits last week.Although, as noted above, the supplemental $300 benefit was originally intended to run for 11 weeks, would have effectively meant that only 10 weeks of the extra money would be paid out, since the benefit is scheduled to end on March 14.However, a Labor Department spokesperson said in a statement that the $300 supplement will run "for the weeks of unemployment beginning after December 26, 2020, and ending on or Per , it remains unclear whether or not states will be able to retroactively pay that money, with Labor Department guidance coming in the near future.That could be just the start of problems caused by the delay — the PEUC and PUA programs were also slated to expire last week under the CARES Act, and were extended in the new bill. According to The Hill, the Labor Department expects those programs to continue as planned. However, wrote that the delay in signing the bill could lead to further slowdowns in states implementing those extended programs, putting benefits for millions of Americans at risk.This post will be updated as the story develops. Insider is awaiting comment from the Department of Labor.Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know.Subscribe to push notificationsAn icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.Keep readingIt indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowSign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox.Something is loading.On Sunday, President Donald Trump finally signed the&nbsp; and $1.4 trillion omnibus package funding the government and avoiding a shutdown.While many of the new law's provisions will help support individual, businesses, and communities across...

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Andy Kiersz

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Trump's delay on signing the stimulus bill could have cost unemployed Americans $5.9 billion — but now new reporting suggests payments won't lapse as feared

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