Encouraging the American Workforce

Getting Americans back to work has been one of the primary challenges facing our nation since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly one year ago. While the employment situation varies widely from state to state, ensuring every unemployed American can reconnect with work must be a top priority. In Nebraska we are fortunate to have an unemployment rate of just 3%, making us one of 18 states that have an unemployment rate below 5%. Other states which have had more restrictive lockdowns are seeing much higher rates of unemployment.

The bipartisan COVID relief packages I supported last year were strongly focused on keeping workers connected during such difficult times. The Paycheck Protection Program was a loan program guaranteed by the Small Business Administration to help eligible small businesses and non-profits keep employees on the payroll. PPP loans have proved to be vital to the small businesses whose doors would have otherwise closed as a result of the loss of business brought on by the pandemic. Unfortunately, the current spending package pushed by President Biden and Congressional Democrats does not contain measures to encourage the most critical part of the American workforce: connecting workers and employers.

In addition to programs like PPP, the CARES Act also included a program to provide an additional $600 per week for every Unemployment Insurance recipient through the spring and summer of last year. While the goal of this program was well intended – to help the short term unemployed until temporarily closed businesses could reopen – I soon heard from employers across Nebraska that it was a major impediment to hiring or rehiring workers. The recently proposed $400 per week will be just as problematic as the prior $600 for Nebraska businesses looking for employees.

I support COVID relief, but the bill the Democrats are pushing through simply does not help main street businesses reconnect the unemployed with jobs. Because of my concern, I introduced an amendment which would have allowed states to choose how they deploy the additional unemployment funds provided in the bill based on their own unique situations by allowing states with low unemployment to pay a lower unemployment add-on and using the remaining funds to pay back-to-work bonuses or provide reemployment services. Despite my amendment being an opportunity for states to better serve their unemployed, Democrats rejected my amendment.

Congress should be laser-focused on defeating COVID and reopening our economy. We must recognize the reality of our economy and provide actual aid to the American workforce. The Democrats are pushing forward a partisan package full of their own wish list rather than targeted relief for the unemployed. The coronavirus pandemic is unlike anything we have seen before, and as we approach almost a full year of the trials and tribulations brought on by it, we cannot allow non COVID-specific bills, like the one before us, to masquerade as a resource for workers and businesses. We must do better to return to a working America.