To protect unemployed workers from the deleterious economic effects of COVID-19, the U.S. federal government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) on 27 March 2020. The physical distancing measures put in place to fight COVID-19 resulted in more than 41 million U.S. workers filing for unemployment benefits and a national unemployment rate of about 19.5 percent in April and 16.3 percent in May (the Bureau of Labor Statistics botched the actual unemployment rates). For millions of unemployed workers, the $600 per week boost to unemployment insurance benefits as a result of the CARES Act is a life-line—the only thing standing between them and economic collapse. The boost to unemployment insurance benefits will expire on 31 July 2020. We demand Congress extend the unemployment insurance expanded coverage and full $600 per week benefit boost until early 2021.

Recovering from COVID-19 will take many more months if not years. Unemployment is expected to continue at record-high rates into 2021 according to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The virus continues to spread at an alarming rate due to inadequate preventative measures. Art workers are among the hardest hit by COVID-19, as many social events discontinued.

Inflation will likely not happen due to the expected continued credit of U.S. Savings Bonds in the short to intermediate terms. To pay for the extensions of expanded unemployment insurance including the continuation of the federal $600 per week boost, the wealthy and large corporations should pay increased taxes.

Some have argued the federal unemployment insurance expansion and boost create a disincentive for unemployed workers to return to work. The argument ignores we are still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and most jobs lost as a result of virus have not returned and may never return. Employers that pay starvation wages may have difficulty finding workers, in which case, the problem lies in our inability to secure a living minimum wage and not unemployment insurance, which, at present, affords the bare minimum of survival.

By continuing the expanded coverage and full $600 per week benefit boost to unemployment insurance at least until early 2021, we will save the economy from waves of foreclosures and evictions that would instigate a credit crisis perhaps worse than the Great Recession. The workers saved by the unemployment insurance expansion and boost will also more readily join re-employment by having been saved the trauma of full economic collapse. Extending the federal unemployment insurance expansion and boost will ensure our workers including artists have the ability to recover once we defeat COVID-19.

Sincerely,

public arts commission and co-signatories