Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Thursday sent a letter to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh urging the Department of Labor to ensure that workers get life-saving unemployment benefits even as Republican governors threaten to take it away.
Though not with Governor Scott in Vermont, Republican Governors across the country indicate they will renege on the promise of life-saving federal unemployment aid. Over 1.1 million workers are at risk next month of losing some or all of the unemployment benefits Congress extended in the American Rescue Plan – affecting workers in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.
“Let’s be clear. There is not a shortage of willing workers in America,” said Sen. Sanders. “There is a shortage of employers willing to pay workers a living wage with decent benefits. If employers truly want to expand their workforce, there is a simple solution: raise wages and provide decent benefits. Punishing unemployed workers who lost their jobs during a pandemic through no fault of their own by taking away their unemployment benefits will not improve the economy. It will only make a bad situation even worse.”
Read the full letter here.
Source: WASHINGTON, May 13 – Senator Bernie Sanders