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From early afternoon on June 24 into the morning of June 25, a sit-in was staged outside the Georgia Department of Labor. Protesters demanded the Georgia state government retain, not slash, the $300 per week federal unemployment benefits that were extended under the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan Act during the pandemic. Over 223,000 people in Georgia will lose the federal benefits.
The supplemental benefits were slated to end on Sept 6, but 22 states across the country decided to end the benefits in June. Over 15 million working-class people across the country rely on unemployment insurance benefits to survive week to week. For millions of unemployed people and their families, these benefits are the difference between having housing and facing eviction.