Democratic state officials joined together Tuesday to call for an extension of the $600 per week boost to unemployment insurance funded by the Coronavirus Aid Relief, and Economic Security Act.

Gov. Tom Wolf and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., conducted a joint news conference Tuesday asking Republican U.S. Senators to approve a funding package that will reinstate boosted unemployment benefits that ended in late July.

The $600 per week was meant to help the millions of Americans who lost employment during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wolf said even today, people are not returning to work, not out of laziness or lack of work ethic or training, but because there are not enough jobs available or the risk to their health is too high.

“Unemployment compensation has always been a stopgap to protect people between jobs,” he said. “There are simply no jobs to go out and get. That's why we need Congress to act now and continue the $600 per week benefit.”

In May, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the extension of federal unemployment benefits through the end of 2020 as part of a roughly $3-trillion HEROES Act.

But Republican senators have held firm in their opposition.

“Another day has come and gone in this once-in-a-century national battle for our country,” said U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a news release Tuesday.

While the tussle over trillions of taxpayer dollars continues, Americans saw their benefits slip away beginning this week.

“That money has been a lifeline for me and my family,” said Liz Stanton, a member of the Service Employees International Union in Pittsburgh.

Stanton has worked at Carnegie Mellon for the past 15 years, and she has continued working during the pandemic.

“I'm also a high-risk category should I contract COVID-19,” she said. “Bill collectors aren't interested in my health. They just want my money.”

Republican senators have instead offered an alternative, an additional $200 per week with a percentage based evaluation that will dictate later benefits after a few weeks.

“We built a serious starting point based on the bipartisan programs we passed in March unanimously, and what the country needs now,” McConnell said.

Casey said his colleagues need to realize that $200 per week is insufficient for both sustaining a family and stimulating the economy.

“We have got to make sure that the federal government spends money now, and if that creates deficit and debt, then that's what we have to do,” Casey said.

He said he is not concerned about adding to the deficit when it benefits people's survival. He said, meanwhile, his Republican colleagues gave the wealthy one of the biggest tax cuts in history.

“Rich people got a bonanza like they never saw before,” Casey said.

Wolf concurred that people need money now, and state and federal governments can figure out how to pay later for keeping people alive today.

“This is a program that puts money directly in the pocket of people who need it the most,” Wolf said. “It would be a great, great tragedy, in so many ways, if Mitch McConnell and the Republicans fail to act in the way they should.”