Legislative action expands food assistance, sick leave and unemployment benefits

Federal and state bills signed into law yesterday took steps to provide assistance to people whose lives have been “turned upside down,” in the words of N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by the novel coronavirus pandemic and the government’s efforts to contain it.

The federal “Families First Coronavirus Act” signed by President Donald Trump yesterday provides paid sick leave and free coronavirus testing, expands food assistance and unemployment benefits, and requires employers to provide additional protections for health care workers.

The bill provides additional funding for nutrition and food assistance programs, including:

• the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC);
• the Emergency Food Assistance Program; and
• nutrition assistance grants for U.S. territories. It also provides funding for nutrition programs that assist the elderly.

The bill also suspends the work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program), and allows states to request waivers to provide certain emergency SNAP benefits.

The bill also:

• establishes a federal emergency paid leave benefits program to provide payments to employees taking unpaid leave due to the coronavirus outbreak;
• expands unemployment benefits and provide grants to states for processing and paying claims;
• requires employers to provide paid sick leave to employees;
• establishes requirements for providing coronavirus diagnostic testing at no cost to consumers;
• treats personal respiratory protective devices as covered countermeasures that are eligible for certain liability protections; and
• temporarily increases the Medicaid federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP).

The bill was passed in the House on Saturday in the Senate yesterday.

New York First Congressional District Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), a member of the Congressional Bipartisan Coronavirus Task Force, supported the measures.

“The ongoing outbreak of coronavirus is an ever-evolving situation that has had an extraordinary impact on our everyday lives, which is why this legislation is a measured, common-sense, but extraordinary proposal to assist Americans under the circumstances,” Zeldin said in a statement last night.

“Every level of government has a responsibility to work together to ensure Americans have the resources they need to take care of themselves and their loved ones and come out stronger than ever on the other side,” Zeldin said.

New York yesterday enacted legislation that provides sick leave and wage replacement for workers under mandatory or precautionary quarantine or isolation due to the novel coronavirus. The new law also gives employees anti-retaliation and job protections.

Employees that work for small businesses (10 or fewer employees and a net income of less than $1 million) will receive unpaid sick leave and immediately become eligible for paid family leave and temporary disability insurance benefits.

Employees that work for medium-sized businesses (10 or fewer employees and a net income of greater than $1 million OR have between 11 and 99 employees) will receive at least five days of paid sick leave, followed by eligibility for paid family leave and TDI benefits. Finally, employees that work for employers with 100 or more employees, in addition to all public employees, would receive a minimum of 14 days of paid sick leave.

Also under this legislation, paid family leave benefits are expanded to include leave taken by an employee when they or their dependent child are subject to a mandatory or precautionary order of quarantine or isolation.

Current waiting periods for these benefits, in addition to unemployment insurance due to closure of work in response to COVID-19, will be waived.

The legislation was passed yesterday by both the State Assembly and State Senate and signed into law by Cuomo.

The state law provides “immediate relief to working New Yorkers whose lives are being turned upside down by COVID-19,” the governor said.

“No one should have to make the impossible choice between losing their job or providing for their family and going to work, especially during this pandemic,” he said.

“We seek to build upon this effort with guaranteed sick leave for all in this year’s budget.”