The Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA announced recently the first four states to receive the $400 unemployment benefits. This time they revealed when to receive the benefit. 

Unemployment claims
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that the first four states to receive the unemployment benefits are Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arizona. They agreed on the program and will cover 25 percent of the cost, or $100. 

This time, FEMA announced that the states are expected to roll out the unemployment benefit to millions of Americans in the last week of this month. This means that residents living in the first four states FEMA mentioned recently will have the benefits on their hands two weeks from now. 

The FEMA will administer the funds as Pres. Trump ordered. The agency will be using its existing and unspent relief fund to create a new supplement. It can be remembered that Pres. After Congress failed to act on the second round of the stimulus payments that include the unemployment claim, Trump made the executive order.

Meanwhile, some states opposed the provision of the order that they will counterpart 25 percent of the expanded unemployment benefit. Some state governors said that they could not support $100 because of the economic fallout they are experiencing due to the global pandemic. 

However, Pres. Trump assured that Americans would have the help that they need amid the pandemic. He said that states that are struggling to counter the cost of the unemployment benefit could write a letter of request to their office.

Moreover, FEMA noted that one state has already started to roll out the benefits right after Pres. Trump signed and issued the executive order. The unemployment benefits include retroactive payments through the start of the month. 

Additionally, the document of FEMA cites that unemployment benefit distribution is expected to roll out three weeks after it was signed. That means that millions of Americans who availed the program will receive the aid they need on April 29. 

FEMA added that even though it is cited in their document, the distribution of the unemployment benefits still varies from one state to the other. According to a published article in The Hill, one state contacted and told them that they would start sending the benefits until mid-October.

There are two other states also who said that they do not yet have a timeline as to when to start sending unemployment benefits. This now raised some questions about the estimated timeline as to when other states will avail of the program and start to send the benefit. 

Recently, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows announced that Pres. Trump already gave a signal that he will immediately sign the extension of stimulus payment, PPP loans for businesses, and more once it is on his table,

Meadows also challenged those who criticized the president to go back to Washington and discuss the stimulus payment and other benefits that millions of Americans needed. 

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