The president of Envision Greater Fond du Lac says she’s not surprised that it took congress this long to pass another COVID relief bill. The bill pumps $900 billion into relief efforts including help for hard hit businesses, schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction. Envision president Sadie Parafiniuk says she hopes the extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits doesn’t keep people from re-entering the workforce. “For those who need it it’s necessary, but for maybe those who are on the fence of you want to go back to work or I’m making just as much on unemployment as I am at my job, we might have more people staying out of the workforce,” Parafiniuk said. Retired Ripon College political scientist Paul Schoofs says nationwide research has shown that the majority of people do want to get back to work. “…realizing these assistance programs don’t last forever. When they run out they might not have a good job opportunity. While there are individual cases where it happens, for the most part it doesn’t impede people from taking jobs,” Schoofs told WFDL news. Unemployment benefits were scheduled to expire this week for an estimated more than $10 million Americans.
