SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois state Comptroller Susana Mendoza is among eight state financial officers urging the Treasury Department to reinstate interest-payment waivers on tens of billions of dollars loaned to states for unemployment rolls that exploded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mendoza was the lead signatory Monday on a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen maintaining that the waiver’s Sept. 6 expiration has added to the burden states face in determining how to pay back more than $39 billion loaned. Illinois owes $4.5 billion in principal and now has accrued more than $20 million in interest.