Trump wants to use FEMA to pay for unemployment. It’s not as crazy as it sounds.

Last weekend, President Trump did something unusual. He issued a memorandum authorizing states to tap the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) $70 billion Disaster Relief Fund to pay for enhanced unemployment benefits. The new benefits are intended to replace the $600-per-week pandemic relief benefit, paid out on top of regular state unemployment, that Congress passed in March and that expired at the end of July. The move came after talks between the White House and Congress to renew the federal unemployment benefit stalled out, and at a moment when the...