NC House Republicans push to remove the state from extra federal unemployment benefits

Key Republicans in North Carolina’s state House are pushing to end extra federal unemployment benefits for workers in the state.

The program offers an additional $300 a week to North Carolinians who can’t find work because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A proposal to remove the state from the pandemic unemployment compensation agreement emerged in a House committee meeting Wednesday evening.

“We’re hearing from our employers as the economy gets back and churning that they are looking for folks to get back to work,” said Rep. Jason Saine, a Republican from Lincolnton, “and this will help speed that up.”

State legislative Republicans are echoing North Carolina’s U.S. senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, who called on the Democratic governor to end the program last week, saying that the program is causing a workforce shortage in the state.

A state House finance committee passed the bill Wednesday evening. It would have to be approved by the full House before consideration by the Senate and then Gov. Roy Cooper, who has pushed back against the idea of cutting benefits.

“North Carolina has among the stingiest and shortest unemployment benefits in the country and many families are dealing with issues such as lack of affordable child care and finding jobs with livable wages,” Cooper said in a statement responding to Burr and Tillis’s letter.

During the finance committee meeting Wednesday, some House members agreed with Burr and Tillis that the program is causing unemployed workers to remain home.

Others questioned whether taking money from the unemployed would harm them, while also saying that taking that money out of North Carolina’s economy could affect spending in the state.

Saine put forward a new Senate Bill 116, now known as the “Get North Carolina Back to Work Act.”

The bill replaces the “Let them Play, Let us Watch” bill that was passed by the Senate and would have allowed more people to attend events at public and private high schools.

That version of the bill has become a moot point now that Cooper has lifted gathering restrictions from his COVID-19 emergency orders.

The House’s proposal differs from the N.C. Senate’s unemployment bill. The Senate’s bill would keep the federal program intact but add bonuses for people who find new employment.

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