As President Trump sends mixed signals about his support for a new economic relief bill, states and localities urgently need additional fiscal aid so they can both rehire workers they laid off or furloughed this spring and avoid additional layoffs and budget cuts that they will likely otherwise make to balance their budgets this fiscal year.
After COVID-19 struck this spring, states and localities laid off or furloughed over 1 million workers, more than the 750,000 that they laid off over the full course of the Great Recession of about a decade ago.