Kudlow: $600-per-week boost to unemployment benefits won't 'survive the next round of talks'

White House economic adviser Larry KudlowLarry KudlowMORE said Tuesday that he doesn't think that the $600-per-week boost to unemployment benefits will be extended in subsequent coronavirus relief legislation, suggesting that a future package would instead include alternatives to encourage people to go back to work.

"I frankly do not believe the $600 plus up will survive the next round of talks, but I think we’ll have substitutes to deal with that issue," Kudlow, the director of President TrumpDonald John TrumpTucker Carlson assures viewers his show 'not going anywhere' following presidential election Trump senior advisers dissuaded president from military strike on Iran: report Senators clash on the floor over wearing masks: 'I don't need your instruction' MORE's National Economic Council, said in an interview on Fox News.

The $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package Trump signed on March 27 provides a $600 per week increase to unemployment benefits through the end of July to help the millions of Americans who abruptly lost their jobs due to the coronavirus. The benefits were increased by a flat amount so that states could quickly administer the change.

Democrats are largely supportive of the increased benefits, with House Democrats passing a bill earlier this month that would extend the $600 weekly boost through January 2021. But Republicans argue that the increase is creating a disincentive for people to go back to work, since some people are receiving more in unemployment benefits than they were in wages before they lost their jobs.

Some Republican lawmakers, such as Sen. Rob PortmanRobert (Rob) Jones PortmanGOP shows limited appetite for pursuing Biden probes Profiles in cowardice: Trump's Senate enablers We need a (common) 'sense of the Senate' resolution on transition planning MORE (Ohio) and Rep. Kevin BradyKevin Patrick BradyOn The Money: Biden, Democratic leaders push for lame-duck coronavirus deal | Business groups shudder at Sanders as Labor secretary | Congress could pass retirement bill as soon as this year Top Democrat: Congress could pass retirement bill as soon as this year Momentum grows for bipartisan retirement bill in divided Congress MORE (Texas), have floated the idea of a "back to work bonus," in which people who reenter the workforce could keep some portion of their unemployment benefits for some amount of time. 

Kudlow said that this idea is something that the White House is "looking at very carefully."

"The trouble with the $600 plus up, and maybe we needed it in that emergency period, but frankly it’s a major disincentive to go back to work and we don’t want that, we want people to go back to work," he said.

Kudlow also that a payroll tax holiday for employees, which Trump supports, would also incentivize work because it would increase people's after-tax incomes.

Kudlow isn't the only administration official to express concerns with the $600 per week boost to unemployment benefits. Treasury Secretary Steven MnuchinSteven Terner MnuchinDeadlock leaves no clear path for lame-duck coronavirus deal  The Hill's 12:30 Report: House members-elect arrive for orientation Schumer, Pelosi want Heroes Act as 'starting point' in new COVID-19 relief talks MORE said in an interview with The Hill last week that policymakers "need to fix the quirk” with the enhanced benefits that allows some people to get more in benefits than they were making pre-unemployment.