REMINDER: Georgia’s Republican Senate Contenders Still Fighting Against Extending Expanded Unemployment Relief in a Crisis

As unemployment insurance expansion lapse becomes “unavoidable,” Georgia Republicans still set against expanded relief for out-of-work Georgians

ATLANTA — With over 120,000 Georgians filing for unemployment last week and the state still ranking last in economic recovery, Georgia’s Republican Senate contenders have gone all-in on fighting an extension of expanded unemployment relief as “a gap in federal unemployment benefits is now unavoidable” thanks to Senate Republicans’ lack of action.

Senator David Perdue has already called this program for struggling Georgians “a hindrance” and said in an interview this week that it was somehow “the number one thing” holding back recovery — even as he had no problem writing off banks making “more than $10 billion in fees” off a small business relief program as “the cost of doing business.”

Senator Kelly Loeffler, meanwhile, said that she’s “not seeing a big need to extend the federal unemployment insurance” despite reports that “more than one in eight workers” in Georgia remain unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And her opponent, Congressman Doug Collins, wants to “cut back” on expanded unemployment relief “or do away with it altogether.”

“Georgia families need help — but up against the deadline to extend expanded unemployment insurance, Georgia’s Republican Senate contenders are still attacking this critical relief,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Instead of fighting for out-of-work Georgians, Republican Senate candidates have prioritized pushing a corporate slush fund and a lawsuit that would strike down the entire health care law and its protections for Georgians with pre-existing conditions in the middle of a pandemic.”

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