Unemployment may stay elevated long after the crisis is over, lawmakers say. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
Policymakers risk withdrawing fiscal supports too soon during the coronavirus pandemic, a mistake made during the Great Recession of 2008, according to a just-released report by the House Budget Committee.
While the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law in late March, included enhanced unemployment payments, some of these payments will expire this summer and others at year-end.
"Given the uncertainty, these expiration dates are arbitrary, and families and the economy may still need fiscal relief beyond these dates," the report, Continuing COVID-19 Relief for Workers and Families, states.
The report examines the benefits of tying the extension of expanded automatic stabilizer programs — such as those included in the CARES Act — and other federal relief to economic conditions.
House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., said in releasing the report that "withdrawing support too soon would not only stymie recovery efforts, it would put the well-being of the American people at risk."
