With just weeks left before the extra $300-a-week federal unemployment checks run out, scores of unemployed Floridians are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to reconsider a decision to end participation in the federal government’s enhanced unemployment benefits program, the Associated Press reported. Florida is among a growing number of Republican-led states that are withdrawing from the federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. The state’s participation is set to end June 26. As Florida’s economy rebounds from the pandemic, some businesses say they can’t find enough people to fill open jobs. Some Republicans assert that the unemployed aren’t actively looking for work because of the federal checks they are still getting. DeSantis has said the economic rebound means there are jobs to be had, and that withdrawing from the program would “incentivize people to go back to work.” Rich Templin, the legislative policy director with AFL-CIO Florida, said during a video news conference that withdrawing from the program would “prove disastrous for the workers currently relying on these benefits.” “We’re being told that workers are not seeking employment because they want to sit at home eating bonbons for less than the minimum wage,” Templin said. “This is a completely false mean-spirited narrative, not based in reality and certainly not based on any sound policy consideration.” Templin and others acknowledged that the last-ditch effort to extend the benefits is likely futile, considering the political and ideological divides over the issue.
