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Trump wants to use FEMA to pay for unemployment. It’s not as crazy as it sounds.
Grist.org ^ | By Zoya Teirstein on Aug 15, 2020

Posted on 08/16/2020 1:27:08 AM PDT by 11th_VA

Last weekend, President Trump did something unusual. He issued a memorandum authorizing states to tap the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) $70 billion Disaster Relief Fund to pay for enhanced unemployment benefits. The new benefits are intended to replace the $600-per-week pandemic relief benefit, paid out on top of regular state unemployment, that Congress passed in March and that expired at the end of July. The move came after talks between the White House and Congress to renew the federal unemployment benefit stalled out, and at a moment when the official unemployment rate in the U.S. is hovering around 10 percent and multiple states are going broke.

Diverting money from the agency that helps Americans recover from hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires to cover for failed negotiations with Congress may sound on its face like yet another Trumpian norm violation. But contrary to some of the unorthodox decisions Trump has made in the past — like reallocating $155 million from FEMA to pay for immigration detention centers at the southern border — this one makes some sense, because FEMA is already in the business of paying unemployment benefits.

FEMA’s Disaster Unemployment Assistance program exists to pay temporary benefits for people whose employment was “lost or interrupted as a direct result of a major disaster.” Presidents have frequently authorized Disaster Unemployment Assistance at states’ request. For instance, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico requested and received the assistance after Hurricanes Rita and Maria.

“FEMA funds have been used for Disaster Unemployment Assistance many times post-disaster,” Samantha Montano, an assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, explained. “However if all states and territories chose to utilize this program during COVID it would be at a scale never done before.”

It would also be according to rules, and a payment model, never seen before. Normally, Disaster Unemployment Assistance is available only to people who aren’t eligible for regular unemployment insurance. But Trump’s executive order allows people to access FEMA funds on top of regular unemployment by calling some of the FEMA benefits as “lost wages assistance” rather than “Disaster Unemployment Assistance” — a technical sleight of hand that some legal commentators have called into question. However, people receiving less than $100 per week on unemployment — which could be about 6 percent of all unemployment insurance recipients, according to one estimate — won’t qualify for the additional assistance...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fema
Interesting ...
1 posted on 08/16/2020 1:27:09 AM PDT by 11th_VA
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To: All

The first 4 states: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3874758/posts


2 posted on 08/16/2020 1:31:12 AM PDT by Drago
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To: 11th_VA
I am surprised the deranged Democrats haven't sued in some kangaroo court in Hawaii yet.
Didn't Schumer threaten to sue if Trump went ahead and acted unilaterally via executive order?
3 posted on 08/16/2020 1:50:07 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: SmokingJoe

I read something about that recently, a catch 22. If the states refused to take the money, they wouldn’t have ‘standing’ to sue. And the optics look bad as well - the RATs won’t di it


4 posted on 08/16/2020 2:05:24 AM PDT by 11th_VA (May you live in interesting times - Ancient Chinese Proverb)
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To: 11th_VA

The Trump Team really knows how to make government work for the people instead of the other way round.


5 posted on 08/16/2020 3:54:07 AM PDT by Revolutionary ("Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!")
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To: 11th_VA

Democrats are totally useless. They have no idea how to negotiate for what they want and they aren’t smart enough to outmaneuver a New York Real Estate genius. I don’t care what they think will happen in the next election, it’s clear to me that President Trump has set them up for complete and total destruction.


6 posted on 08/16/2020 4:00:25 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: 11th_VA

Uh, Mr. President, we are in the middle of hurricane season...


7 posted on 08/16/2020 5:23:18 AM PDT by Yo-Yo ( is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Yo-Yo

“Uh, Mr. President, we are in the middle of hurricane season...”

So? If you know that then get prepared.


8 posted on 08/16/2020 5:30:38 AM PDT by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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To: 11th_VA

Very interesting.


9 posted on 08/16/2020 5:45:11 AM PDT by grimalkin (Communism is the final logic of the dehumanization of man. -Fulton J. Sheen)
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To: 11th_VA

Well. it is a sort of natural man made disaster.

By man made I mean the chicoms caused it.


10 posted on 08/16/2020 6:37:33 AM PDT by crz
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To: crz

That is what I was thinking. Covid is a disaster.


11 posted on 08/16/2020 6:52:50 AM PDT by proud American in Canada (In these trying times, "Give Me Liberty or Give me Death!")
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To: CodeToad
So? If you know that then get prepared.

So you don't spend FEMA's resources on unemployment benefits.

12 posted on 08/16/2020 5:10:40 PM PDT by Yo-Yo ( is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Yo-Yo

FEMA has far more resources than you know.


13 posted on 08/16/2020 5:12:43 PM PDT by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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