VTDigger is posting regular updates on the coronavirus in Vermont on this page. You can also subscribe here for regular email updates on the coronavirus. If you have any questions, thoughts or updates on how Vermont is responding to COVID-19, contact us at coronavirus@vtdigger.org
With the full Senate planning to reconvene on Tuesday to pass coronavirus response measures, members of its economic development committee scrambled Friday to finish work on a measure to expand eligibility for unemployment benefits for the duration of the COVID-19 state of emergency.
Throughout the week, Senate lawmakers have been debating emergency exemptions to make it easier for Vermonters to access unemployment benefits.
The latest proposal Friday includes eligibility for people who have voluntarily left jobs to care for children, those self-isolating because a family member has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and other exemptions.
“The world has changed since the House version of this bill,” committee Chair Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, said Friday. “The only added benefits that the House put in their version was for the care of a sick relative and only those relatives who had been diagnosed with the virus.”
“Essentially the House version protected 10 additional people as opposed to the thousands we have to protect here,” he added.
The committee is still working out how to ensure that, during the state of emergency, an employee who does not feel safe in their work environment and decides to self-quarantine can be eligible for unemployment benefits.
This legislative work, which cannot be accomplished by an executive order from Gov. Phil Scott, comes as the state says more and more workers are losing their jobs and applying for unemployment benefits.
On Thursday, the Vermont Department of Labor released its weekly report on unemployment insurance claims filed from March 7-14.
As of Saturday, March 14, there had been 661 initial claims, up more than 200 since March 7, but on par with this time in 2019.
The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for benefits increased by 70,000, to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 benefit applications last week — the highest weekly total since Sept. 2, 2017, following Hurricane Harvey.
However, in Vermont the latest report does not include the time frame when unemployment insurance began to spike. Acting Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington said on March 17 his department handled 500 initial claims.
During the legislative process, Sirotkin has repeatedly said he wants to make sure it is as easy as possible for people to get unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 crisis.
Sirotkin has already run into difficulties finding the necessary funding, as lawmakers fear drawing down Vermont’s $500 million unemployment trust fund and continue looking to Washington, D.C., for signs of what support is on the way.
“Right now we are already maxing out on benefits and I think, you know, we all should be very concerned about the ability of our employers to contribute back at this point to the trust fund,” Harrington said Thursday.
“It is not an endless pot of money and the more options we provide, the less benefits there actually are and the less amount of time they will actually last,” he added.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump approved legislation to ensure access to free testing for coronavirus and that establishes paid emergency leave — including both 14 days of paid sick leave and up to three months of paid family and medical leave.
There are also changes to federal unemployment insurance that would extend benefits to furloughed workers, suspend the employment requirement to be eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or 3SquaresVT in Vermont) and provide so school lunches can be delivered to children.
“This could get complicated very quickly,” Sirotkin said Friday as the committee pondered incorporating a federal programs component into the state emergency law.
Sirotkin said he plans to work with Rep. Michael Marcotte, R-Newport, who is the chair of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development, over the weekend to make sure both chambers are in agreement on the legislation before the Senate approves it Tuesday.
