c-span.org. or listen with the free c-span radio app. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. selectedden has senator kamala harris as his running mate. born in oakland, california, and 1964, she graduated from howard university and the university of california hastings college of law. she served as san francisco's district attorney from 2004 to 2011 before being elected the attorney general of california. in november, 2016, she defeated loretta sanchez to win her u.s. senate seat. january, she announced her candidacy for president before ending her campaign in december citing lack of funds to continue. zoo for -- zoom.

senior economist at the nonprofit upjohn institute for employment research in kalamazoo, michigan. christopher o'leary, let's work away backwards. can you explain what president trump's executive action when it came to unappointed insurance he signed this weekend, what it did in how it compares to what was offered under the cares act? guest: good morning, john. thank you for having me on. pleasure to be on washington journal. certainly i can address the executive order. i read it. theink i understand objective. up and talke back about this whole idea of supplementing unemployment. it is interesting. there have been eight recessions since the eisenhower administration. every one the federal government

has extended the duration of regular state on employment insurance benefits. there was a modest additional compensation added during the great recession in 2009. $25 added. check.d to every benefit it went largely unnoticed. recognized the existing unappointed insurance system is inadequate in many ways. in particular in terms of income replacement. , think the executive order let's hope it was an effort to bridge the impasse. $600 lump-sumhe made a lot of sense in many ways. reasons andlot of very little negative affect found in research from it. a lot of positive effects in terms of social distancing and

income security. the executive order, i don't know it has standing. i think the house in the ways and means committee, representative neal has the purse strings. athink they will be involved some point before this thing gets resolved. the president proposed something modeled on the disaster unappointed insurance program, an emergency program. bill, the cares act inc. something --inc. unemployment insurance. disaster unemployment insurance requires emergency decorations. the current arrangement is similar. waspresident's proposal

$300, which was the last bargaining position out of the senate on this. bes said $400 would sufficient. he is counting on in the executive orders to pony up the extra $100 per check. benefits, laste week there were 17 million checks passed out. $100. that is $1.7 billion per week. the states are already facing difficulties paying the regular benefits. 19 states have applied for loans from the treasury. 11 have received advances from the treasury. level of preparation going into this, the state reserves are being depleted. remember, john, the worst ever week of unemployment insurance was aboutthe history

one million a week. day, after st. patrick's that week there were 6 million people claiming benefits. that is a staggering difference. that persisted for a couple of weeks. finally dropped to about 3 million. now it is running about 1.5 million, greater than the historic high ever. the system is paying out benefits. it is doing its function to a large extent. i read it carefully, the president's proposal. i was disappointed to see the president's supplement would not provide any benefits to people with weekly payments under $100. i asked myself why. the unappointed insurance programs serve many people. i have done a lot of work on the relationship between unemployment insurance and

public assistance, food stamps. people who get a little bit of unappointed insurance really helps them avoid sliding into poverty. who are low-wage workers or part-time workers and may qualify for a low-level benefit, and may qualify for a low-level benefit. -- benefits can be as low as five dollars a week in some states. many states it is $50 per week. why would we exclude them? the supplement is giving people security. it is promoting social distancing and helping tamp down the virus. me, to end o september -- on december 6. i hope i addressed some of that. host: we want to talk to some of those people you are referring

to and invite those folks to call in. a special line if you are unemployed, (202) 748-8000. we want to work you into this conversation. business owners, (202) 748-8001 is the number. all others, (202) 748-8002. andep dive into federal state unemployment insurance this morning with christopher o'leary of the upjohn institute for employment research. can you briefly explain who you are and how long you have been around? guest: sure, thank you. this year is our 75th anniversary. upjohn institute was established in 1945 right after the war. it was established based on an endowment. the founder of the upjohn drug up a month before he died. dr. upjohn grew up on a farm. ofthat time it was a period

transition from a farm economy to an industrial economy. , amployment insurances program for an industrial economy where people are separated from the land and the means of subsistence. he set up a farm outside of kalamazoo where people could set up a garden, maybe build a cottage, grow crops. they had some assets that were put into the endowment. some people did use it as that. some people got grants. then the institute operated as a grantmaking foundation. it was finally created as an institute for research in 1945 to study on and ways of dealing with unemployment. that is about the upjohn institute. host: christopher o'leary, senior economist. you have spent a lot of time studying unemployment. when it comes to today and what

is happening now with the pandemic, how many americans are currently receiving some form of unemployment insurance, whether from the state or federal government? guest: last week, the report comes out every thursday morning told us that 31 million people were continuing claimants on on appointment. 17 million were regular state beneficiaries, state programs. there were about 13 million on the special pandemic unemployment assistance, which is available for self-employed, gig, and contract workers who don't qualify for regular state benefits. there are several categories. you might not meet the eligibility requirements if you are at home taking care of kids who are in school. you could qualify under pandemic on employment assistance. -- unemployment assistance.

there are about 13 million people receiving that. 31 million people is a staggering number. a fifth of the workforce. host: do we have a total of how much has been spent on unemployment insurance additionally because of the coronavirus pandemic? has anybody totaled that of yet? guest: going into this

>> thank you very much. nice to be with you all. good evening. before providing today's update on the china virus i want to address the violence,