U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez Urged President Donald Trump’s administration to expedite the release of unemployment payments amid a fiscal tumble fueled by COVID-19.
“Over 6.6 million Americans filed an unemployment claim in the last week of March. As coronavirus continues to spread, we expect that this number will only get higher,” the two wrote in a letter to Department of Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia. “We understand that the responsibility for administering and distributing unemployment compensation traditionally falls to state workforce agencies. However, in its capacity overseeing state programs, the Department must do everything it can to assist states during this pandemic.”
More than half a million New Jerseyans have filed for unemployment in the last three weeks.
Last week alone, roughly 215,000 Garden State Residents submitted unemployment claims.
The senators are urging the Department of Labor to provide technological assistance and issue guidance related to federal aid programs made available under the $2 trillion bailout bill Congress passed in March, among other things.
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