Pa. senators weigh in on stimulus bill
Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators weighed in Wednesday on the $2 trillion emergency stimulus bill.
“The Pennsylvania economy is closed,” Sen. Pat Toomey said, adding that while he’s not criticizing the order from Gov. Tom Wolf to close businesses that are not “life sustaining,” he said the move will have devastating economic consequences. “This has never happened before in American history.”
In a conference call with reporters, Toomey said the bill will address urgent fiscal matters that the state and country are facing as a result of COVID-19. That includes what Toomey said is a “dramatic increase” to unemployment benefits, providing stimulus checks to individuals and helping fund efforts to fight the virus.
Toomey said Pennsylvania’s share of those funds is a little over $5 billion, adding that if the states do not use the money, it will be returned to the federal government.
Sen. Bob Casey said the latest version of the bill became stronger after Democrats in the Senate fought to increase funding to workers and families. He said the bill includes $150 billion for what he calls a “Marshall Plan for hospitals, nursing homes and community health centers.”
He said he’s pleased the package bill includes provisions from his Coronavirus Relief for Seniors and People with Disabilities Act, to support seniors at home, including new resources and flexibilities for nutrition services and to protect nursing-home residents from the virus.
Toomey said it would take too long to catalog the entire list of what the bill provides, but said parts are designed to help keep people employed or keep businesses available for when employees eventually return to work. One element is a $300 billion small-business loan program for companies of up to 500 employees to cover payroll and other necessary costs; for companies with 500 to 10,000 employees, the government would make available a 50% tax credit on their payrolls for up to eight weeks.
Toomey said he couldn’t think of any category of business that wouldn’t qualify for the business loan.
While Casey said he would have liked the bill to include a 15% boost to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as well as assistance for student loans and mortgages, he said that overall, the bill needs to move as fast as it can to help stabilize the economy.