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Nearly 12 million Americans to lose unemployment aid unless Congress acts

Men wear face coverings as they walk toward a grocery store to shop downtown amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in El Paso on November 17, 2020 in El Paso, Texas. (AFP photo)

Some 12 million Americans are about to lose unemployment aid benefits unless lawmakers resume unemployment programs set to end on December 26, HuffPost reports.

The report cited an analysis by The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank that has closely tracked unemployment claims this year.

“Without unemployment benefits and with savings badly depleted, families will be at high risk for food insecurity and loss of their homes, and many may be unable to pay for health care during some of the darkest days of the pandemic,” The Century Foundation’s Andrew Stettner and Elizabeth Pancotti wrote in their analysis. “The nation’s entire economy will suffer.”

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have so far  failed to reach a comprehensive deal for coronavirus relief as some Democrats point the finger at GOP leader in control of the Senate.

“Cases and hospitalizations are skyrocketing, which will cause the economy to further decline over the next few months,” Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement. “In the face of mass death and economic devastation, Mitch McConnell is doing nothing to provide relief to American families.”

Pelosi on Tuesday sent a letter, demanding McConnell to negotiate.

“For the sake of the country, we ask that you come to the table and work with us to produce an agreement that meets America’s needs in this critical time,” the top House Democrat said.

More than 3 million people in US are estimated to be contagious with the coronavirus, which keeps breaking records in the number of hospitalizations and deaths.

“It’s bad; it’s really, really bad,” Columbia University epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman told The Washington Post. “We’re running into Thanksgiving now and that’s only going to make it worse. We’re going to go through a lot of people being infected between now and the end of the year, unfortunately.”


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