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U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal took a quick break from helping negotiate the largest financial relief package in American history to describe for hundreds of concerned New Haven business owners how the roughly $2 trillion prospective deal seeks to keep them, their workers, and the entire economy afloat amid the Covid-19 shutdown.“We’re trying to add engines to the airplane while we’re flying it, to change the wheels while we’re driving,” he said about Congress’s response to the unprecedented urgency of the dual public health and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Blumenthal provided that update and fielded a dozen questions Wednesday morning during a 40-minute video-conference town hall hosted by Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce President Garrett Sheehan via Zoom.
Sheehan said that over 240 attendees called in to the webinar, with another 70 or so watching at any given point on the chamber’s Facebook Live video stream.
The conference call started just after 11 a.m. — half an hour after its originally scheduled start time.
The reason for the delay: Blumenthal, Connecticut’s senior U.S. senator, had to attend a last-minute conference call with the Senate’s Democratic Caucus at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the proposed $2 trillion bipartisan relief package that Senate leadership and President Donald Trump’s administration have said they have agreed to as of early Wednesday morning.
Chamber Prez Sheehan and Senator Blumenthal on Wednesday’s call.
“The details have been overwhelming,” Blumenthal said. “We’re trying to do very quickly what normally takes months, to do over hours.”
He said the bill is more than most annual federal budgets, and is over twice the size of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bill that Congress passed at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
Congress’s first $8.3 billion emergency response bill focused on providing money for federal health agencies. Its second estimated $100 billion-plus relief package focused on paid sick leave and free coronavirus testing.
This third package seeks to address the profound economic hardship experienced by businesses that have been forced to shutter and workers who have been laid off or furloughed during the crisis.
Blumenthal said that key sections of the bill are still being written. The U.S. Senate plans to vote on this third, and by far the largest, coronavirus-related relief bill later Wednesday afternoon.
“I understand how everybody has been crushed, literally crushed,” Blumenthal said. “Workers have been crushed by layoffs and furloughs. Families are struggling to put food on the table and pay rent and mortgages. Small businesses are going through the excruciating pain of laying people off, which hurts you emotionally and economically.
“We have felt the emergency of this moment. We are not here laying back.”
Blumenthal said that some of the key provisions in the not-yet-final bill are:
• $130 billion for hospitals, healthcare centers, and first responders. “We won’t solve the economic emergency if we don’t solve the medical emergency,” he said.
• $367 billion for small businesses. This money, to be administrated by the U.S. Small Business Administration, will be made available first in the form of loans. Those loans can be converted into grants that don’t have to be paid back, Blumenthal said, for those businesses that have fewer than 500 employees and that do not layoff employees over the course of the pandemic. That money is also available for nonprofits, specifically 501(c)(3)s and 501(c)(4)s, but not 501(c)(6)s. “Our goal is to keep people at work,” he said.
• Expanded unemployment compensation insurance that will allow workers to receive “close to full pay” for a total of four months. “Not weeks,” he said. “Four months. That is a major expansion.” He said the income guidelines for who will be eligible for this unemployment insurance are not yet final. He said that people making under $100,000 per year will likely get full or nearly full pay through this expansion. Independent contractors will be covered by this relief package.
• $500 billion as part of a bailout program for uniquely hard-hit industries, such as the airline and hotel industries. “However, there will be oversight,” he said. “There will be transparency. Within a few days, every deal will be made public.” He said that Senate Republicans initially wanted to set a six-month timeframe for when the federal government has to release details about which industries will be bailed out as part of this plan. He said the new deal reduces that timeline to three days. He said the bailout will also be overseen by an inspector general and a Congressional committee. “We’re talking about taxpayer money here,” he said. “This is not money that comes from the skies.”
“There will be transparency.”
This oversight board has been one of the key points of contention between Democratic and Republican senators over the past few days, with Democrats like Connecticut’s Chris Murphy arguing that the relief package should not simply be an unmitigated bailout for certain large industries.
• $150 billion in aid to state and local governments. He said each state will get at least $1 billion in aid, and that the hardest hit states will receive more. He estimated that Connecticut will receive more, considering its proximity to New York, which is currently the country’s epicenter for the outbreak. That money can then be passed down to local health departments, housing agencies, and homeless shelters, among other state and local government-supported services.
Not discussed at all during the call was the government’s planned distribution of $1,200 in direct cash assistance to taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 per year. That money is slated to phase out and then end altogether for those earning more than $99,000. According to The New York Times, families would receive an additional $500 per child.
“How do you see this getting accessed and getting out to businesses?” Sheehan asked.
The Small Business Administration will be responsible for distributing this money to businesses, he said. “My office is going to be all hands on deck,” helping local businesses work their way through government bureaucracy and submit complete, timely applications for assistance.
Is there any more for workforce training included in this package? Sheehan asked, relaying a question from Workforce Alliance President Bill Villano.
Not as of right now, Blumenthal said. “My view is there will have to be another round, another package” of Congressional relief.
If companies have already let staff go, Sheehan asked, are they still eligible to receive these SBA loans and grants?
“Yes,” Blumenthal said, so long as they hire back that laid off staff. “The concept is that yes, businesses who have laid people off already, if they hire them back, they can get a loan and have the loan forgiven.”
And how soon will this money be made available? Sheehan asked.
“The best I can tell you is that the goal is that it be available within days,” Blumenthal said.
He added that he would like to see the President Trump follow through on his previous commitment to exercise the Defense Production Act to order private industries to produce essential, limited healthcare supplies, including masks, gloves, and ventilators.
He said that former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt exercised a similar act in 1940, about a year before Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entrance into World War II, to get the major automobile manufacturers to start making bomber airplanes.
Blumenthal said the U.S. is in a similar crisis right now, and needs to mobilize its industries to create the tools needed to help this country survive the pandemic.
“This virus has no respect for state borders,” he said. “It’s an equal opportunity killer.”
Murphy’s Update
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy included the following updates about the proposed Senate relief bill in his daily email newsletter sent out Wednesday night.
Below please find the Murphy office update on COVID-19. As always, if you need assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact our Hartford or Washington DC offices.
Here’s what you need to know today, March 25th:
Today, the Senate reached an agreement on a third COVID-19 relief bill to help workers, families, hospitals and their staff, and small businesses.
The bipartisan legislation includes:
• Direct cash payments for low and middle-income families — $1,200 per person and $500 per child.
• $150 billion for hospitals and health systems to fight the virus.
• $260 billion for increased unemployment insurance that waives waiting periods and covers part-time, self-employed, and gig economy workers.
• $377 billion to rescue small businesses, including forgivable loans to small businesses and non-profits to maintain their workforce and help pay for other expenses like rent, mortgage, and utilities.
• $150 billion to assist States, Tribes, and local governments with new expenses related to COVID-19 response.
• $30.75 billion for grants to provide emergency support to local school systems and higher education institutions to continue providing educational services to their students, as well as $8.8 billion in additional funding to ensure meals for children while schools are closed.
• $3.5 billion to support child care centers and provide child care for first responders and health care workers.
• $400 million in election assistance for the states to help prepare for the 2020 election cycle, including to increase the ability to vote by mail and expand early voting and online registration.
• $7 billion for affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs. This funding will help low-income and working-class Americans avoid evictions.
• $450 million through The Emergency Food Assistance Program to help stock the shelves of local food banks.
• Strong requirements for industries receiving bailout money including no stock buybacks or dividends, restrictions on increases to executive compensation and a prohibition of funds for any businesses controlled by the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, and heads of Executive Departments.
The Connecticut Department of Public Health is asking health care professionals, such as retired nurses and doctors, to consider volunteering their services at a medical facility in Connecticut. Those willing to volunteer should fill out the online form located at ctresponds.ct.gov.
Connecticut announced that they are extending tax filing season to July 15 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Taxpayers can go here to learn more about the extension.
If you are a Connecticut veteran having difficulty reaching your health care provider, please contact the Connecticut VA at 866 – 808-7921 to do so. The call center will get in touch with the nurse or doctor for you.
Over 100,000 people in Connecticut have filed unemployment claims since March 13. If you need to apply for unemployment, please go to www.filectui.com
Yesterday, Governor Lamont announced a public-private partnership between the state of Connecticut and philanthropists Indra and Raj Nooyi to distribute take-home books from Scholastic that will provide reading and writing instruction to more than 185,000 prekindergarten to 8th grade students while learning from home.
The US Department of Commerce will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, March 26 at 12PM to help manufacturers understand how to highlight their COVID product capabilities and allow buyers in need of high demand items to quickly identify manufacturing capabilities and supplies. Register here: https://emenuapps.ita.doc.gov/ePublic/event/editWebReg.do?SmartCode=0QH7
For the latest information about keeping you or your family safe go to cdc.gov/coronavirus. For resources and information about Connecticut’s response visit ct.gov/coronavirus.
I hope you found this letter helpful. You can get the latest updates on Senator Murphy’s work in the Senate by following him on Facebook and Instagram. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our offices in Hartford or in Washington, DC.