By Asha Banerjee and Emma Williamson, The Center for Law and Social Policy, October 5, 2020
In early 2020, advocates were cautiously optimistic as a new decade awaited, one that could be free from the economic crises, slow recovery, and painful mistakes of the last one. Nine months later, as the summer of 2020 ends, the atmosphere could not be more different. The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic has devastated the United States and the world, disproportionately infecting and killing people of color, while shutting down schools, businesses, and economies. On June 8, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced that the U.S. economy had officially been in recession since February. Congress passed several recovery bills to provide immediate relief, most notably the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in late March. However, these efforts fell far short: unemployment rates for workers of color still hover in the double-digits and tremendous uncertainty remains about education, employment, and other economic activities.
Our nation badly needs another economic recovery package, and several supports from previous bills have either expired or will sunset soon. Struggling workers, families, and students did not get sufficient relief from either the $1,200 stimulus checks—which not all workers and families received—and have long since been spent, or the president’s executive actions on unemployment insurance benefits, the suspension of student debt payments, or the federal moratorium on evictions. As a result, we have an increased urgency for government spending and fiscal support to states. Yet, as past economic crises have shown, without sustained federal support, states will be forced to implement harsh austerity measures, rather than fund critical programs to help workers and families survive and recover.
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