Washington—Heritage Action for America today released the following statement on behalf of executive director Jessica Anderson in response to congressional negotiations over coronavirus relief funding:
Since the CARES Act passed, conservatives have made clear there should be no new “comprehensive” bill — instead, Congress should fix CARES and let it go into effect. Majority Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans are right to work quickly on President Trump’s request for $250 billion more for the Paycheck Protection Program, which is helping small businesses stay afloat and will help employees emerge from this crisis with paying jobs. Any increase to this program constitutes a fix to get the correct funding amount needed to address small business needs.
Furthermore, there should also be a change to the program to ensure businesses most impacted are given the greatest assistance while not wasting valuable resources on businesses which have experienced little to no impact.
Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Schumer are threatening to hold small business owners hostage with their unacceptable spending demands, like another bailout of state and local governments to the tune of $150 billion. Despite the fact that the federal government is already spending trillions on relief efforts around the country, they don’t believe state and local governments should balance economic and health needs just like the Trump administration is.
Instead of holding those businesses hostage to jam through their liberal policy priorities, Pelosi and Schumer should allow the Senate to immediately pass funding for the program, and the House should follow suit immediately.