Not completely crash and that unemployment continues to decline since the initial large increase attributable to the pandemic. I think in terms of Unemployment Insurance specifically, the insurance covered a lot of people would not have normally had access to Unemployment Insurance and the extra 600 a week. It allowed people to have money to spend to keep the economy and themselves afloat. Host Michele Evermores at the nalp. Org, Unemployment Insurance has been a critical lifeline during the pandemic. Typically, how much extra money is this providing for the unemployed . Guest the pandemic unemployment assistance provides an extra 600. Where that came from is congress decided if the economy was going to be deliberately shut down to prevent the spread of the virus, then 100 of income should be replaced, but that 100 is hard to calculate with state computers, so what they figured was the average weekly benefit for Unemployment Insurance is 370 a week, and the average weekly wage is 900 a
Massive local tax increases. Anyone of those alone threatens to make this economic crisis even worse and the combination of all three is almost unthinkable. The bureau of labor statistics just reported that state and local governments laid off nearly one million workers in april. That is almost one million firefighters, police officers, teachers, Emergency Personnel that should be on the front lines of the Public Health crisis but are sidelined instead. Chairman powell, let me start by asking, do you agree that our economy will get worse if state and local governments are forced to lay off even more firefighters, teachers, any and Emergency Personnel . Let me say what we are doing. We have a liquidity facility that is there to address the shortterm liquidity needs that these entities have because of their loss of revenue due to the effects of the pandemic. That is really the tool that we have. I appreciate that. That is not my question. States,ion is if counties, and municipalities con
Okay, the rules committee will come to order. Before i give my opening statement, i just want to read a guidance from the attending physician. And we asked him specifically about the use of face coverings during proceedings like these. And while he is not mandated their use, he did share that, and i quote, my preference is that members retain their face covers when speaking as speaking is an activity which can release virus particles, especially if the speaking is of high spirited nature. And ive never had a meeting in the rules committee that hasnt been of a high spirited nature. So were going to leave it up to individual members to decide. But i think i will to be cautious here, im going to keep mine on. Others will be mindful of the reason why there is guidance on this issue. It has been roughly three months since the First Community transmission of covid19 was discovered in the United States. Since that time, our world has changed dramatically. There are now more than 1. 3 million
[background noises] the ways and Means Committee will now come to order. Good morning, today we will consider the historic u. S. Mca transforming agreement that creates a new High Water Mark u. S. Trade deals moving forward. The implementing bill before us is the result of many months of negotiations and indeed more than a year between House Democrats and the ambassador robert who worked with us honorably every time we met. And im very proud of the outcome of that we have reached. When we assume the majority this year, we were asked to consider a renegotiated nafta that had structural flaws in a number of areas including enforcements, labor rights, the environment, and access to medicines. Let me start with enforcement. Which was the crux of this agreement. As ive noted many times over the past year, i did not vote for the original nafta, the chief reason was a lack of enforceability. In the past 25 years, weve seen the shortcoming of the original agreements, much of which comes down t
Speak the ways and Means Committee will now come to order good morning we will consort considered a historic usmca the high watermark with trade deals moving forward it is the result of more than one year House Democrats and the ambassador light heiser who worked with us every time we met. Im very proud of the outcome we have reached. When we assume the majority this year we were asked to consider a renegotiated nafta in a number of areas including enforcement the environment and access to medicines that we start with enforcement as noted many times i did not vote for the original nafta and the chief reason was the lack of enforceability. The past 25 years we have seen the shortcoming much of which comes down to lack of enforcement in my view the improvements to the usmca finally makes the agreement enforceable n by preventing a country to block a nation dispute settlement attempt. Nafta has been symbolic and over 25 years there have been 39 petitions filed with zero enforcement action