WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump recession continues as another 860,000 Americans joined the unemployment ranks in the last week, bringing the total number of workers drawing unemployment benefits to nearly 29.8 million. While the health and economic crises only grow worse after key relief measures under the CARES Act expired several weeks ago, President Trump’s Senate allies continue to hold up the next round of urgently needed aid for struggling states, workers, and small businesses – failing to pass even their own “skinny” recovery bill last week that offered too little for those in need and more needless bailouts for wealthy corporations.

Meanwhile, the HEROES Act that passed in the U.S. House in May and that meets the magnitude of the difficulties the nation faces continues to collect dust on Leader McConnell’s desk. Now even President Trump, who for months preferred a “wait-and-see” approach to more aid, is criticizing the Senate’s half-measures and demanding “much higher numbers” in their next stimulus proposal.

“When even Donald Trump thinks Senate Republicans haven’t done enough to help millions of families reeling in the recession – and let’s be clear, he hasn’t done enough – then they are truly phoning it in,” said Kyle Herrig, president of government watchdog Accountable.US.

“If the president really wants ‘much higher numbers,’ he won’t accept anything less than a full extension of the $600 extra unemployment benefit and adequate relief for states, potential evictees, and disappearing small businesses in communities of color. The Senate needs to follow the House’s lead and pass a serious bill that gets help to communities other than the wealthy and well-connected and actually meets the magnitude of the crises we are in.”

It’s Clear More — Not Less — Needs to Be Done as The Trump Recession Continues for Millions of Americans:   

  • NBC News, 9/14: Black women who own businesses fight against wave of closures. From February to April, the number of Black businesses dropped more than 40 percent, compared to 22 percent overall.
  • Bloomberg, 9/14: Eviction Filings by Big Landlords Surged After Trump Issued Ban. The Trump ban, enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to avert homelessness during a pandemic, was seen by tenant advocates as a way to delay evictions. But it provides no funding to cover unpaid rent, putting both landlords and tenants at risk and making it difficult to avert a rental crisis.
  • Vox, 9/14: Congress’s failure to pass stimulus has had a devastating — and predictable — effect on minority groups. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while white unemployment fell to 7.3 percent in August, the Black unemployment rate was at 13.0 percent, the Hispanic rate at 10.5 percent, and the rate for Asian Americans was 10.7 percent.
  • NPR, 9/14: Despite A New Federal Ban, Many Renters Are Still Getting Evicted. By one count, just in the Houston area, more than 9,000 eviction cases have been filed during the pandemic. Houston is one of the ground zero cities when it comes to evictions. And less than 4% of those renters facing eviction have a lawyer.

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