COVID-19 Updates, News, White House Report

Stimulus Funds Not Circulating as Unemployment Reaches Historic Level

April Ryan
April 13, 2020

A resident copies down the Mississippi unemployment benefit website after being unable to enter the state WIN Job Center in north Jackson, Miss., Thursday, April 2, 2020. The job centers lobbies are closed statewide to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The agency encourages residents to apply for their benefits on line. Some centers have made paper unemployment applications available to those people without computers, for them to mail back or push through the centers' mail slots or doors. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

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The numbers are staggering. 16 million Americans over the last three weeks have applied for unemployment insurance due to the coronavirus pandemic. People are still awaiting stimulus checks, and small businesses and non-profits are applying or SBA disaster loans.

Funds are not circulating to those in need as promised and hoped for small business people who are feeling the pain financially from the stay at home orders and the deadly virus. AURN’s April Ryan speaks with Congress member Barbara Lee (D-CA) who talks about an overloaded system and efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus to ensure all businesses and applicants have access to emergency funding.

More than 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last four weeks. Families are struggling to put food on the table, workers have lost their health care, students home from school don’t have reliable internet access.

Congress must do more.
— Barbara Lee (@BLeeForCongress) April 11, 2020

Click ▶️ to listen to AURN Washington Bureau Chief April Ryan’s White House Report:

April Ryan has a unique vantage point as the only Black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House, a position she has held with AURN since the Clinton era. Her position as a White House Correspondent has afforded her heightened insight into the racial sensitivities, issues, and attendant political struggles of our nation. April has written three books; The Presidency in Black & White: My Close-Up View of Three Presidents and Race in America, At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White, and Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House. Twitter: @aprildryan