Senator: Bipartisan deal gives NJ, nation fighting chance at defeating COVID-19, restoring promise of our economy
$2T package includes direct payments & enhanced unemployment assistance for workers, unprecedented aid to small businesses,
critical support for frontline hospitals & states
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
U.S.
Senator Bob Menendez, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee
and a member of the select bipartisan team negotiating the bill, issued
the following statement on the agreement
of a $2 trillion federal stimulus package to respond to the COVID-19
pandemic:
"I
am relieved that bipartisanship prevailed at a time when the stakes
have never been higher, and the lives of so many Americans are on the
line.
“At
the start of these negotiations, there was a strong possibility that
the Senate majority would push through a trillion-dollar spending
package that failed to shore up
our fight against COVID-19, abandoned states like New Jersey on the
frontlines of this pandemic, and left small businesses and working
families behind while big corporations pocketed massive bailouts.
"Fortunately,
we fought back, we stood our ground, and today we have a bipartisan
deal that gives New Jersey and the nation a fighting chance at defeating
COVID-19 and restoring
the promise of our economy.
"First
and foremost, this package will deliver billions of dollars of aid and
loans to hospitals so that our doctors, nurses, and frontline health
care workers have the resources
they need to conduct testing, treat the sick, and ultimately save
lives. The wealth of our nation hinges on the health of our people, and
there’s simply no path to long-term economic prosperity that does not
begin with defeating COVID-19.
"Secondly,
this legislation responds to the urgent needs of states like New
Jersey, which has already spent billions of dollars battling the
nation’s second-highest number
of COVID-19 cases. I’m proud to have fought for the state
stabilization funds in this deal, which will ensure New Jersey’s state
and local governments are not bankrupted by the battle against a global
pandemic while maintaining essential critical services,
like emergency response, during this critical time.
"Finally,
this bipartisan package comes to the aid of small businesses and
workers suffering as a result of the drastic, but vital social
distancing measures we must take
to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and ultimately save lives.
Direct payments will help working families weather this storm, and I’m
pleased that Democrats successfully fought to ensure low-income
Americans aren’t shortchanged in the middle of a national
crisis.
“We
also secured major improvements to unemployment benefits. For the
first time ever, employers will be able to furlough workers instead of
outright laying them off, enabling
them to keep their health benefits while receiving an additional four
months of enhanced unemployment benefits from the federal government.
This will not only keep working people afloat, but also ensure they have
jobs to return to once this crisis is behind
us.
“We
also won an unprecedented $377 billion pool of economic aid for
America’s small businesses. These low-cost and forgivable loans will
help New Jersey’s restaurants, retailers,
and other local businesses make payroll, pay rent, protect jobs and
ultimately drive our recovery.
"Congress
had an obligation not just to respond to this crisis quickly but to do
so in a responsible way. When spending a trillion-plus dollars of
American taxpayer money,
we cannot afford to get it wrong and we must always stand up for what’s
right.
“There
is much more work to do to ensure the safety and economic wellbeing of
our residents and communities, and I stand ready to fight for New
Jersey’s priorities in Washington.”
BROAD PACKAGE DETAILS
·
$260 billion for workers.
An
extended and expanded Unemployment Insurance program increases the
maximum unemployment benefit amount by $600 per week above one’s base
unemployment compensation benefit through July
and ensures that workers who are laid-off or out of work, on average,
will receive their full pay for four months. It ensures that workers are
protected whether they work for businesses small, medium or large,
along with self-employed and workers in the gig
economy.
·
Direct payments to families.
$1,200 for most individuals, $2,400 for couples and $500 per child.
·
$377 billion for small business.
A priority for Sen. Menendez, these funds would
be used for forgivable loans and grants to small businesses and
non-profits so they can maintain their existing workforce and help pay
other expenses during this crisis, like rent, a mortgage or utilities.
·
$150 billion for hospitals, health care facilities.
A priority for Sen. Menendez, this
includes a massive new grant program for hospitals and health care
providers, personal and protective equipment for health care workers,
testing supplies, increased workforce and training, new construction to
house patients, emergency operation centers and
more. Additional funding is also dedicated to increased Medicare
payments to all hospitals and providers to ensure that they receive the
funding they need during this crisis, and new investments in our
country’s Strategic National Stockpile, surge capacity
and medical research into COVID-19.
·
$150 billion state and local government stabilization fund. This
critical funding will
be a temporary lifeline to states and communities that are seeing huge
budget holes that have been created by the economic slowdown and
response to COVID-19. While more work needs to be done, this $150
billion fund is a strong down payment that will keep
communities going and ensure they have the resources to respond to this
public health emergency.
·
$230 billion “emergency appropriations.”
Funding ranges from billions for hard-hit
airports, increased aid to municipalities, funding for child care,
nutrition for seniors, housing assistance, support for local school and
colleges, and for the National Guard to support to the hardest hit
States and territories.
o
$25 billion for transit systems.
These
dollars can be used to supplement revenues due to steep declines in
ridership and to cover additional costs of coronavirus-related cleaning
products and labor.
o
$400 million in election assistance.
Funding for the states to help prepare for the 2020
election cycle, including to increase the ability to vote by mail,
expand early voting and online registration, and increase the safety of
voting in-person by providing additional voting facilities and more poll
workers.
o
$7 billion for affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs.
Funding will help
low-income and working class Americans avoid evictions and minimize any
impacts caused by loss of employment, child care, or other unforeseen
circumstances related to COVID-19. Funding also supports additional
assistance and for people experiencing homelessness.
o
$30 billion for grants to provide emergency support to local school systems and higher education institutions
to continue to provide educational services to their students and support the on-going
functionality of school districts and institutions.
o
$3.5 billion in additional funding for the Child Care Development Block Grant
to provide
child care assistance to health care sector employees, emergency
responders, sanitation workers, and other workers deemed essential
during the response to the coronavirus.
o
$6.5 billion in Federal funding for CDBG, the Economic Development Administration, and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership
to help mitigate the local economic crisis and rebuild impacted industries such as tourism or manufacturing supply
chains.
o
$10 billion in grants to help our nation’s airports as the aviation sector grapples with
the most steep and potentially sustained decline in air travel in history.
o
$4.3 billion to CDC to support federal, state, and local public health agencies
to prevent,
prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus, including for the purchase
of personal protective equipment; laboratory testing to detect positive
cases; infection control and mitigation at the local level to prevent
the spread of the virus; and other public
health preparedness and response activities.
o
$1.4 billion for deployments of the National Guard
to support up to 20,000 members of the
National Guard, under the direction of the governors of each state, for
the next six months in order to bolster state and local response
efforts.
o
$19.57 billion for VA to provide equipment, tests, and support services necessary to provide
veterans with the additional care they need at facilities nationwide.
o
$45 billion for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund.
More than doubling the available funding,
to provide for the immediate needs of state, local, tribal, and
territorial governments, as well as private non-profits performing
critical and essential services, to protect citizens and help them
recover from the overwhelming effects of COVID-19. Reimbursable
activities may include medical response, personal protective equipment,
National Guard deployment, coordination of logistics, safety measures,
and community services nationwide.
o
$16 billion to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile
supplies of pharmaceuticals, personal
protective equipment, and other medical supplies, which are distributed
to State and local health agencies, hospitals and other healthcare
entities facing shortages during emergencies.
o
$1 billion for the Defense Production Act
to bolster domestic supply chains, enabling industry
to quickly ramp up production of personal protective equipment,
ventilators, and other urgently needed medical supplies, and billions
dollars more for federal, state, and local health agencies to purchase
such equipment.
Sen.
Menendez and other Democrats fought to achieve the following
improvements from the original bill put forth Sunday by Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.):
·
$10
billion for SBA emergency grants of up to $10,000 to provide immediate
relief for operating costs once a small business or non-profit has
applied for an Economic Injury Disaster
Loan.
·
$17 billion for SBA to cover six months of payments for small businesses with existing SBA loans.
·
Allow rent, mortgage and utility costs to be eligible for SBA loan forgiveness.
·
$30 billion in emergency education funding and $25 billion in emergency transit funding.
·
Four months of enhanced unemployment insurance, instead of 3 months.
·
$55 billion increase in support for our healthcare system.
·
$150 billion for a state and local Coronavirus Relief fund.
·
$30
billion in additional funding for the Disaster Relief Fund to provide
financial assistance to state and local governments, as well as private
nonprofits providing
critical and essential services.
·
Ban stock buybacks for the term of the government assistance plus one year on any company receiving a government loan.
·
Establish robust worker protections attached to all federal loans for businesses.
·
Create
real-time public reporting of Treasury transactions under the Act,
including terms of loans, investments or other assistance to
corporations.
·
Add a retention tax credit for employers to encourage businesses to keep workers on payroll during the crisis.
·
Provide income tax exclusion for individuals who are receiving student loan repayment assistance from their employer.
·
Eliminated $3 billion bailout for big oil.
·
Eliminated “secret bailout” provision that would have allowed bailouts to corporations to be concealed for six months.
·
Saved hundreds of thousands of airline industry jobs and prohibited airlines from stock buybacks and CEO bonuses.
Click Here for the full list of Sen. Menendez’s
actions to protect New Jersey families during the COVID-19 outbreak.
