The additional unemployment benefit of $600 per week is set to expire in New York on July 26.

The payment has been a safety net for many residents in the Hudson Valley who lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

"It was the difference between going underwater on our mortgage and being able to survive," says teaching assistant Mike Bento. "That $600 brought it to where I was making what I was when I was working."

Congressional Republicans have pushed for a reduction of the $600 benefit because of concerns that some workers are earning more on unemployment and will be discouraged from returning to work, even though millions are unable to find jobs.

"It's stunning to me that we're having this conversation," says substitute teacher Abby Burton. "The facts are these benefits have helped the economy by giving us the money to pay our rent, buy food.  All that goes back into the system."

If Congress fails to pass an extension of the federal pandemic unemployment compensation, the result could be financially devastating, according to Democratic state Sen. Shelley Mayer. 

"The Senate has to act," she says. "We need Mitch McConnell and the majority in the Senate to realize that this is something that will benefit all the states of the country."

According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, nearly 25 million Americans will continue to be unemployed throughout this month, August and September.