In a reversal, the Trump Administration is now excluding 67,000 of the state’s 450,000 unemployment recipients from the upcoming round of $300 federally enhanced weekly benefits.
Governor Edwards says each recipient must now receive at least $100 in weekly unemployment from the state to qualify.
“All 67,000 that I am talking about are getting less than 100 dollars in state benefits per week right now,” says Edwards.
Last week Edwards told reporters that the Labor Department had ruled that as long as the state averaged over $100 of weekly benefits per recipient everyone would qualify.
Edwards wants it to be known that this was not the state’s decision to exclude those 67,000.
“That guidance has actually changed over time and it has changed two or three times in the last week, but we do believe that guidance is final now,” says Edwards.
Edwards said it wouldn't even be an issue if the two houses of Congress could come to an agreement on extending unemployment.
The governor expects the first of those federally enhanced benefit checks will be sent sometime next week.
“We don’t yet have the money, we believe we will have the first tranche of money from FEMA by the end of this week so we can’t say a date for certain,” says Edwards.
The benefits are being funded by FEMA emergency response dollars and are expected to last six weeks at most.