From the Arkansas Senate Information Office
LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas legislators approved using $165 million in federal relief funds to shore up the state unemployment insurance trust fund.
Legislative leadership approved an emergency request to allocate the $165 million in order to prevent increases in rates that businesses have to pay into the fund to keep it solvent.
However, approval of the funding was not a smooth process. The Legislative Council convened in a hastily called meeting to express frustration that officials at the Division of Workforce Services failed to inform legislators until the eleventh hour that automatic rate increases in unemployment insurance were imminent.
The division administers claims for unemployment, which have set records due to layoffs caused by the spread of the coronavirus.