Biden Has Few Options as GOP States Slash Aid

Washington Post: “Federal officials have been reviewing whether they could mandate that states continue paying their unemployed workers, preserving a series of coronavirus stimulus programs dating to last spring. That includes Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which provides weekly aid to self-employed workers and others who labor on behalf of gig economy companies such as Uber.”

“But Labor Department officials have come to believe that the government cannot legally force states to administer these benefits… Nor can Washington circumvent Republican governors by administering unemployment checks on its own or through cooperating agencies in other states.”