D.C. workers on unemployment could soon see an extension of unemployment benefits.

Emergency legislation that unanimously passed the D.C. Council Tuesday extends unemployment benefits for seven weeks for traditional claimants as well as contractors and gig workers.

This means that those whose benefits are about to run out because of a time-limit in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) can continue to receive payments. But they will have to apply for the extension since it isn’t given automatically, and the U.S. Labor Department must still review the legislation for compliance with federal regulations before people can start receiving the additional payments.

Some contractors and gig workers who lost income from the pandemic are facing an expiration of PUA, a program that was created by the federal CARES Act last spring and was meant to last for 39 weeks. The legislation that the D.C. Council approved makes these workers eligible for up to 46 weeks of assistance.

Both this assistance and the extra benefits for traditional unemployment claims would be funded by the CARES Act through 2020. Under the council’s bill, people receiving traditional benefits could seek up to 59 weeks of unemployment benefits, rather than up to 52 weeks as is currently allowed.

At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, who authored the legislation, says she pushed to fast-track it because of the impending cliff for the earliest PUA recipients and because the council won’t have another legislative meeting until after the Nov. 3 election. Silverman adds that studies on unemployment insurance have found that it helps keep households and local economies afloat.

“The people who are recipients are spending the money right away, on rent, groceries, [and] basic goods and services that get pumped right back into local businesses,” she says. “It’s important for us to make sure the benefits are continuing to go to families for the welfare of the entire city.”

But the implementation of the extended benefits faces a few hurdles. First, Mayor Muriel Bowser must sign the bill. Asked whether she intends to do so, a spokesperson for Bowser referred DCist to a letter she sent to the council chairman on Tuesday, in which she urged the council to postpone voting on the legislation over concerns about administrative costs and federal compliance.

“If the legislation is not in conformity [with Labor Department guidance], the District will not be able to receive federal funding for these benefits,” Bowser wrote.

Silverman’s office says the D.C. government is still negotiating with the Labor Department about when the additional benefits can be disbursed and that her team collaborated with the Department of Employment Services on the extension. That agency will likely front personnel and technology costs to implement the bill. (The period of extended benefits — seven weeks — derives from U.S. law, according to Silverman’s office.)

Over the past several months, many workers in the D.C. area have struggled to receive the full amount of unemployment insurance for which they’re eligible, in part due to overwhelmed and outdated intake systems. The District still hasn’t been able to make its unemployment insurance system efficient enough to deal with the tsunami of claims filed during the coronavirus pandemic, despite having spent millions of dollars to overhaul that system. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 152,000 claims have been filed.

For Silverman, who chairs the council’s labor committee, the crisis has underscored the need for the District to upgrade its unemployment system. It’s also underscored the need, in her view, for the U.S. government to enact another major stimulus package in response to the pandemic. (She says this will most likely require electing Joe Biden president, given that the chances of another stimulus package coming together remain murky.)

“We need more federal assistance,” says Silverman. “That’s what it comes down to.”