Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Lost Wages Assistance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Arkansas officials ask CARES steering committee for $8 million to cover Lost Wages Assistance match
Summary
State workforce and budget officials told a Senate committee they need roughly $8 million in CARES Act funds to cover an estimated shortfall in the state match required by FEMA’s Lost Wages Assistance program, covering an expected six-week period if federal guidance allows. The state says week‑one payments are secure but later weeks are uncertain pending federal clarification.
State workforce and budget officials asked the CARES Act steering committee and the Legislature on Thursday to approve up to $8 million from state CARES Act reserves to cover the state match for FEMA’s Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program.
Charice Childers, Brian Hicks of the Division of Workforce Services and Jake Bleed of the DFA Office of Budget told the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee that the federal program provides a $300 weekly supplement and requires states to document a $100 match. Arkansas officials said the mechanism for documenting the state match depends on payments already made through traditional unemployment insurance; as claimants exhaust regular UI and move to fully federal programs such as PUA, the amount of state-paid UI that can count as match falls, producing a shortfall.
The department estimated the federal portion of the $300 payments would be about $29 million for week one, with a state-match need of roughly $7 million. Officials said the $8 million request is an estimate of the cumulative shortfall for the first six weeks if current trends continue. They emphasized week‑one payments were authorized and expected to proceed and that the requested appropriation would only be used if federal guidance permits CARES funds to serve as the match.
Committee members pressed staff for clarity about cash flow versus fund balance. Workforce staff said the unemployment trust fund held over $600 million, but the match calculation is driven by the amount of payments made from traditional state UI in a given period, which has declined as claimants move to federal programs. The department provided operational data: about 210,632 PUA applications received, approximately 46,965 with incomplete filings and about 4,900 cases needing additional information; staff said an increase in applications flagged for additional review was offsetting processing gains.
Speakers said they were awaiting written federal guidance authorizing use of CARES Act funds for the match; officials had received verbal indications but no formal Treasury/FEMA documentation at the time of the hearing. If federal guidance disallows CARES funds for match, state officials said alternatives would be limited and could include reallocating other state funds or reducing the $300 supplement.
Next steps: the CARES Act steering committee was scheduled to discuss the request later the same day; any steering-committee recommendation would go to the governor and then to the Legislature for appropriation approval.
