WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th August, 2020) US President Donald Trump is expected to sign a series of executive orders to grant, among others, unemployment benefits to Americans, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said after failed talks with his rivals in producing a new COVID-19 relief bill.
"People have run out of the enhanced economic unemployment, so this is something we will recommend an executive order on," Mnuchin told reporters Friday. "In relation to rental foreclosures, we will recommend an executive order on that and also on student loans. It's going to take a little bit of time for us to finalize these and process them. But we're going to do them as quickly as we can."
Republicans under Trump and their Democrat rivals have been deadlocked for two weeks now on talks over a new COVID-19 relief agreement that would decide whether to extend a $600 weekly check for jobless Americans or come up with a new benefit for them. Trump wants to cut the weekly benefit to $200, saying the $600 payout was so "generous" that it discouraged many from returning to work, even with businesses having reopened from lockdowns forced by the coronavirus pandemic.
The president, who is seeking reelection in November, needs as many Americans working as possible to revive the economy from a record decline of nearly 33 percent in the second quarter. Without an extension of the benefit or approval of a new one, those laid off since March due to the pandemic will be left with weekly no government assistance for emergency cash. At least 16 million Americans have been claiming the weekly benefit since March.
Trump on Thursday said he has instructed his staff to start drafting an Executive Order on unemployment benefits and other aid for jobless Americans should the sides remain at an impasse.
Mnuchin's comments came after the Labor Department reported on Friday that the United States added 1.8 million jobs in July, slowing from June's 4.8-million jobs gain, as a new wave of coronavirus infections hampered labor market recovery from the COVID-19.
