Heroes Act: How could it affect new unemployment benefits?

On Friday the House of Representatives passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief package called the HEROES Act that could end up ‘dying’ in the Senate because the Republicans have stated that they don’t approve its current form. If this occurs then millions of Americans won’t receive a second round of stimulus checks and unemployment benefits won’t extend past July, among other provisions.

Since the United States decided to enforce the stay-at-home orders many businesses were forced to shut down during the quarantine period and this left almost 37 million Americans without a job and without health insurance.

Unemployment Benefits that come with the HEROES Act

The Democrats were the ones who presented the HEROES Act in over 1,800 pages and that want to keep helping millions of Americans who are struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. The first victory was on Friday when the House of Representatives approved the bill and now it’s headed to the Repulican-controlled Senate.

So if the bill was approved then the more than 30 million Americans who had to file for unemployment since mid-March due to the economy shutting down in order to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, then the HEROES Act will extend the unemployment benefits that for now are set to end in July.

This means that people who qualify for unemployment will stop receiving the extra $600 of weekly federal unemployment until January 2021. The HEROES Act also includes benefits for unemployment for immigrants, gig workers, independent contractors, part-time workers and self-employed people who will receive aid through March 2021.