Job advocates call for ambitious COVID relief
Coalition of workforce, community groups seeks cash stimulus, unemployment extension, expansion of food stamps
A coalition of business and community groups is calling for additional federal COVID relief, including extended unemployment insurance and rental assistance. (Shutterstock)
By Ted Cox
Grassroots Illinois job and community groups have joined with businesses and industry leaders to call for Congress to pass an ambitious COVID-19 relief package before the end of the year.
Mari Castaldi, director of policy at the Chicago Jobs Council, led the effort with a letter sent Monday to the Illinois congressional delegation. Signed by dozens of other groups including the Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, the Chicago Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, Economic Security for Illinois, the Heartland Alliance, the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, Women Employed, and the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, the letter seeks immediate passage of a coronavirus relief bill including direct-cash stimulus payments, extension of unemployment insurance, expansion of food stamps, rental assistance, and relief for small businesses and state and local governments.
The letter calls on Illinois senators and representatives to “act immediately to provide urgent economic relief to Illinois families and businesses that can serve as a ‘down payment’ on long-overdue, comprehensive COVID relief and economic-recovery legislation,” adding, “Before the end of 2020, millions of Illinoisans need you to fund emergency resources to meet their basic needs and protect public health amid a still raging pandemic.”
Although U.S. House Democrats have passed several coronavirus relief measures since the CARES Act in March, including the $3 trillion HEROES Act in May and a scaled-down $2 trillion version of the same bill in October, Senate Republicans have resisted additional relief packages. Recently, there have been signs of ending the impasse, as a bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators has pushed a $908 billion relief package as a compromise, but it remains stuck as Democrats push for more aid to states and cities suffering lost tax revenue in the pandemic, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has demanded immunity for businesses and corporations to fend off COVID liability lawsuits.
Gov. Pritzker has repeatedly called for Congress to pass additional COVID relief for states and local governments, and he recently suggested that any coronavirus relief package should include the Restaurants Act to provide aid to bars and restaurants that have borne the brunt of mitigation measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
With extended unemployment insurance and expanded benefits for the self-employed and so-called gig workers set to expire before the end of the year, the letter warns that “millions are facing unparalleled calamity, and will need support both for immediate survival and for transition to in-demand, family-sustaining careers in an upturned labor market.” It seeks an immediate COVID relief package this month, with more to follow once President-elect Joe Biden takes office next year.
“Unless Congress acts, unemployed Illinoisians will be left without a lifeline going into 2021 as the pandemic rages on worse than ever,” the letter states. “The best way to ensure swift economic recovery is to keep families afloat while keeping people healthy. Congress must pass monthly cash payments for Americans for the duration of the pandemic.”
With “food insecurity … skyrocketing across the state,” the groups also ask that food stamps increase by 15 percent under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program “to help make sure families can meet their nutritional needs without adding strain to the food-bank system during this crisis.”
They also seek additional assistance for renters and small businesses, targeting those “that employ up to 100 workers, microbusinesses under 10 employees, and self-employed individuals.”
Pointing out that “Illinois faces a multibillion-dollar budget deficit and faces tax increases on low- and middle-income families as well as deep cuts to social services and mass layoffs without significant fiscal relief,” the letter adds, “Congress must support states and cities — who have dedicated significant resources to mitigating COVID — to prevent devastating cuts that further threaten public health, equity, and economic growth in Illinois,” along with additional funding for workforce development.
“Making sure job seekers and families can meet their basic household needs has to be our first priority,” the letter states, “so that we can move on to supporting them in gaining the skills and opportunities to access good jobs and boost our nation’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.”