AUSTIN, Texas — Protestors gathered in Travis County Thursday to stand in solidarity against Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to pull Texas out of the federal $300 weekly benefit.
As of June 26, Abbott opted Texas out of ARPA programs, including Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and the Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation Program (MEUC), the Texas Workforce Commission confirmed.
The extra $300 weekly unemployment payments approved by Congress and President Joe Biden is scheduled to last into September.
However, Abbott says plenty of jobs are available in Texas, so he is canceling the extra federal money early in order to push more people to get back to work, KVUE sister station WFAA reported.
The protest of Abbott's decision was hosted in front of the Travis County district courthouses in Austin, located at 1000 Guadalupe St.
"Members of the Texas Unemployment Updates FB group are gathering to make their voices heard about the unfair hearing they received for a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent Abbott from halting emergency pandemic unemployment benefits," the labor union posted on its events page. "There needs to be tangible public pressure on the courts to not just do the same thing with the Injunction hearings and sweep this under the proverbial rug."
The Texas Workforce Commission said about 500,000 people would be impacted by the benefits ending. Here are a few local resources to help you land a job.
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