Today is the last day for states to apply for the extra $300 per week in jobless benefits from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Lost Wages Assistance program.
Nearly every state, plus Guam and Washington D.C., have applied and been approved for the money. South Dakota is the only state that declined to apply, while Nevada has applied and is awaiting approval.
With the end of the approval period comes clarity on how long states can expect to pay out the bonus FEMA funds. States that started paying out the money right away have already started depleting the funds, which a FEMA spokesperson told CNBC Make It will be paid out for a total of six weeks.
If a state applied when the funds first became available, the week ending Aug. 1, then the last payment was made the week ending Sept. 5. Texas, for example, informed jobless benefits recipients that the Sept. 5 payment would be the last, local news outlets reported. That said, if eligible workers there have not yet received their payments for Aug. 1 through Sept. 5, they will still receive the money.
Those collecting jobless benefits in states that applied later will still receive a full six weeks of benefit payments, according to FEMA.
"Regardless of where the states and territories are in their process to receive and distribute the FEMA funding, FEMA will fund six weeks in $300 supplemental unemployment benefits to every state and territory that has applied for this assistance by September 10," the spokesperson wrote in an email. Nebraska, for example, was approved Sept. 9, and will now begin to make six payments of the extra $300.
FEMA says that to date, it has distributed $30 billion out of the $44 billion available to 47 states, Guam and Washington D.C.
The LWA program was temporarily established after the CARES Act's enhanced unemployment benefit of $600 per week expired at the end of July.
Congress is currently debating what to include in the next coronavirus relief package, including any continuation of enhanced unemployment benefits.
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