BATON ROUGE, La. — A group of unemployed Louisiana residents filed a lawsuit challenging Gov. John Bel Edwards’ decision to stop accepting federal pandemic jobless benefits five weeks early.
The benefits gave unemployed workers an extra $300-a-week boost and made some self-employed workers eligible for the unemployment assistance.
The Democratic governor ended the federal pandemic jobless aid Saturday. The move stripped benefits from more than 150,000 people and cut benefits to tens of thousands more.
The Advocate reports the lawsuit was filed Friday in Baton Rouge. Edwards shut off the federal unemployment benefits early in a deal with Republican lawmakers that will permanently raise state unemployment benefits by $28 a week in January.
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