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The CARES Act built a flat federal top-up of $600 a week onto every state unemployment check, and that top-up was written to expire July 31, 2020. As the deadline closed in, the House and Senate could not agree on what should replace it. The House had already passed the HEROES Act in May, keeping the full $600 running through January 2021. The Senate answered in late July with the HEALS Act, opening at a flat $200 a week — later meant to shift to a formula replacing 70% of a worker's lost wages, capped against their prior pay, but $200 was the number that dominated coverage of the bill that summer.
This sheet prices both opening positions against the same claimant. HEALS Act weekly total, $ and HEROES Act weekly total, $ each add their respective flat boost to Weekly state unemployment benefit, $; HEALS Act total benefit, $ and HEROES Act total benefit, $ multiply those weekly figures by Weeks of benefits received; and HEROES minus HEALS total, $ subtracts one running total from the other. Every output scales in a straight line with weeks received, because neither bill's flat-dollar boost changes with time — only the count of weeks paid does.
No claimant ever collected either total shown here, because neither bill became law as drafted. Congress stalled through August 2020 without a deal, and a presidential memorandum eventually routed a $300 weekly supplement through FEMA's disaster relief fund instead — a separate program, priced on this site's Lost Wages Assistance sheet, not modeled here. What this instrument reconstructs is the size of the disagreement itself: the dollar distance between one chamber's floor and the other's, which is the number reporters and claimants alike were actually watching that July.
- Enter Weekly state unemployment benefit, $ — your ordinary state UI amount before any federal add-on.
- Set Weeks of benefits received to the number of weeks you want priced, not a fixed program maximum.
- Compare HEALS Act weekly total, $ against HEROES Act weekly total, $ to see the $400 gap in the two bills' weekly boost.
- Read HEALS Act total benefit, $ and HEROES Act total benefit, $ for the running totals over the weeks entered.
- Check HEROES minus HEALS total, $ for the exact dollar size of the standoff at that week count.
Worked example — the $300 state benefit, 10 weeks
Set Weekly state unemployment benefit, $ to 300 and Weeks of benefits received to 10. HEALS Act weekly total, $ comes to $300 plus $200, or $500; HEROES Act weekly total, $ comes to $300 plus $600, or $900. Multiplied across 10 weeks, HEALS Act total benefit, $ reaches $5,000 while HEROES Act total benefit, $ reaches $9,000.
HEROES minus HEALS total, $ works out to $9,000 less $5,000, or $4,000 — the entire gap traced to one disputed weekly figure, $200 against $600. That $4,000 is not a rounding difference or a fee; it is the dollar size of the argument that stalled a Senate and House still meeting daily through the first weeks of August 2020 without a signed extension.
Questions
Did either the HEALS Act or the HEROES Act actually become law?
No. The House passed the HEROES Act in May 2020, but the Senate never brought it to a vote. The Senate introduced the HEALS Act in late July 2020, but it never passed either chamber. The federal boost that eventually restarted came from a separate FEMA-funded program, Lost Wages Assistance, priced on its own sheet on this site.
Why does this sheet use a flat $200 for the HEALS Act instead of the wage-replacement formula?
The published bill text phased in a formula capping the combined state-plus-federal benefit at 70% of a worker's prior wage, but only after an initial transition period set at a flat $200 a week — the figure that led every news account that summer and the one most claimants recognized. This sheet models that flat, widely cited opening figure rather than the later wage-capped phase.
What actually replaced the $600 boost once it expired on July 31, 2020?
Neither $200 nor $600 continued without interruption. A presidential memorandum in early August 2020 directed FEMA's disaster relief fund to pay a $300 weekly supplement instead, and most states did not begin issuing it until several weeks later. That program, Lost Wages Assistance, is a separate calculator on this site — this sheet compares the two unresolved legislative proposals, not the payment that finally arrived.
Why does the gap between the two totals grow so quickly with more weeks?
Because the underlying weekly gap is a fixed $400 — the $600 HEROES boost minus the $200 HEALS boost — and that flat difference is simply multiplied by however many weeks you enter. Ten weeks produces a $4,000 gap; twenty weeks produces $8,000. The state benefit itself never enters that particular figure, since it is identical under both bills and cancels out of the subtraction.
Does Weekly state unemployment benefit, $ change the size of the gap?
No. Raising or lowering the state benefit shifts both weekly totals and both running totals by the same amount, so it cancels out of HEROES minus HEALS total, $ entirely. Only the flat $200-versus-$600 federal add-on and the number of weeks entered move that final figure.
Is this calculator telling me what unemployment benefit I should expect?
No. It reconstructs the arithmetic behind two rival 2020 legislative proposals for historical and educational comparison, not a live benefit estimate. Actual unemployment payments depend on your state's formula, eligibility rules, and whichever federal program, if any, is currently authorized — check your state workforce agency for a current figure.
References
- Congress.gov — S.4318, HEALS Act (116th Congress)
- Congress.gov — H.R.6800, HEROES Act (116th Congress)
- U.S. Department of Labor — Unemployment Insurance program data
Read this first: This instrument shows arithmetic, not advice. Real offers add fees, taxes and terms that vary by lender and place — verify the figures against your actual paperwork before deciding anything.