On Saturday, President Donald J. Trump issued three executive memorandums and an executive order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While some aspects of these executive orders may face legal challenges or not be fully implemented by each state, we wanted to share the facts of each with our membership.
Increased unemployment benefits
President Trump has called for federal unemployment benefits to increase by $400 a week. The federal government will be providing $300 in aid and asking states to provide the remaining $100. There has been no set date for these funds to become available and the final amount may differ due to states providing the additional funding.
Payroll tax
President Trump has instructed the U.S. Treasury to halt collection of payroll taxes starting September 1 through December 31, 2020. This payroll tax deferment would be applied to workers who earn less than $4,000 every two weeks or under $104,000 a year.
Eviction support
President Trump’s executive order directed his administration to extend the federal eviction moratorium, which expired in July, and to put systems in place to provide “financial assistance” to certain renters facing eviction.
Student loan deferment
President Trump issued a memorandum that federal student loan payments may be deferred until December 31, 2020. Those who still wish to make student loan payments may do so.
As mentioned, there are still various issues that could delay the implementation of each of these executive actions and the extended unemployment benefits are not yet available. We encourage you to visit our COVID-19 news and resources section for updates on these and other COVID-19 legislation.