A couple of days ago, the New York Department of Labor announced that up to 2.4 million unemployed New Yorkers will receive $300 a week from the Lost Wage Assistance program established via President Trump's executive order last month - myself included. The payments will be released next week.
But New York DOL Roberta Reardon rightly characterized Trump's executive order as "haphazard."
The reason for this is that we don't know how long these payments are going to last. At this point, FEMA has authorized payments covering the weeks of August 2nd, 9th and 16th. There could be more payments provided the $44 billion set aside for LWA isn't depleted or if the federal Disaster Relief Fund doesn't fall below $25 billion. Given the seriousness of both hurricane season and the forest fires raging out west, I suspect there is a very good chance of that happening. In which case, the LWA might only be a one time payment of $900. Or it could last until December 27th. Either way we just don't know.
Had President Trump and Senate Republicans supported passage of the HEROES Act which House Democrats approved of on May 15th to extend $600 a week enhanced unemployment benefits through January 31, 2021 then we would not have this uncertainty and instability in the midst of a pandemic, economic depression and social unrest.
But Trump is the chaos President. He wants us to be unsure, to depend on his "benevolence" and worship the ground on which he walks when he tosses us a crumb.
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