By the Associated Press:
Republican legislators and a powerful Kansas business group are pushing a proposal to make it harder for unemployed workers to get extended benefits. They argue that extra weeks of aid are available even when thousands of jobs remain unfilled.
But the proposal before the GOP-controlled Legislature is sparking a backlash amid the economic uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Democrats see it as hurting struggling workers at exactly the wrong time.
The Republican chair of the Senate Commerce Committee conceded Friday that it will be difficult to include the measure in broader legislation designed to overhaul the state’s troubled unemployment system.
