Florida U.S. Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio are aiming to “get Americans back to work,” and one way they plan to do that is by ending additional federal unemployment benefits.
The senators were among 10 GOP lawmakers to cosponsor the new legislation.
The “Get Americans Back to Work Act” would reduce additional federal unemployment benefits from $300 to $150 a week on May 31 and would stop all additional benefit payments on June 30.
So far the bill, since being introduced on Tuesday, has been referred to the Senate finance committee.
“Businesses throughout Florida have signs on their doors saying they are understaffed due to the ‘labor crisis,’” Sen. Marco Rubio said in a statement. “The inability to find employees is a real problem, and small employers across our country are struggling to maintain their businesses. This legislation would help Americans get back to work and help our economy recover.”
On Thursday, Scott said he met with Florida business leaders who told him they were struggling to find workers because of the “enhanced unemployment benefits.”
“It’s heartbreaking to hear from Florida business leaders that have done everything needed to survive shutdowns and the impacts of COVID-19 and now find themselves struggling to fully reopen,” Sen. Rick Scott said in a statement. “What I heard from them today is what I’ve heard from countless other businesses in Florida and across the nation in recent months – they can’t compete when the federal government is paying Americans more to stay home than go back to their jobs.”
Here in the state of Florida, the DEO and Gov. Ron DeSantis are resuming the requirements for unemployed Floridians to submit proof of job search in order to collect benefits. The waiver to those requirements expires May 29.
Back in April, DeSantis said he didn’t favor raising Florida’s unemployment benefits, just as state senators proposed a bill to increase maximum benefits from $275 a week to $375 a week and boost the benefit duration from 12 weeks to 14 weeks. That bill didn’t go anywhere before the end of the state legislative session.
Florida ranks in the bottom five for pay from unemployment insurance claims, according to fileunemployment.org.
According to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida’s unemployment rate is at 4.7 percent. The national average rate of unemployment is currently at 6 percent.
Unemployment in Florida has been a contentious issue throughout 2020, particularly in light of constant frustrations with the state’s unemployment website during the coronavirus pandemic.
In March, Florida’s Auditor General released a 30-page report on the $81 million CONNECT system, which highlighted the spike in claims during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and revealed major holes in the system. Dozens of those issues weren’t new, with auditors saying concerns were raised as far back as 2014 when Rick Scott was governor.