Letter to Treasury and SBA Urging Swift Implementation of the Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act

Summary

This March 30, 2020 letter is addressed to Secretary Mnuchin of the Treasury and Administrator Carranza of the Small Business Administration. It asks for sustained attention to implementing the Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act, which it says President Trump signed into law on March 27, 2020, as part of the CARES Act. It says the Act provides $377 billion in relief to small businesses, including the Paycheck Protection Program. It urges the Treasury Department and the SBA to issue public guidance to lenders and businesses and to update the SBA website. The signature block names Marco Rubio, Benjamin L. Cardin, Susan Collins and Jeanne Shaheen.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

March 30, 2020

The Honorable Steven Mnuchin
Secretary of the Treasury
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20220

The Honorable Jovita Carranza
Administrator
U.S. Small Business Administration
409 3rd Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20416

Dear Secretary Mnuchin and Administrator Carranza:

        We write to request your immediate and sustained attention and commitment to
implementing the Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act, which President Trump
signed into law on March 27, 2020, as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security
Act, known as the CARES Act (Public Law 116-136). The Keeping American Workers Paid and
Employed Act provides $377 billion in immediate and meaningful relief to small businesses so that
they can remain operational despite economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This
includes the Paycheck Protection Program – a new loan guarantee program created under the Small
Business Administration’s (SBA’s) 7(a) program that is intended to assure employees of covered
small businesses not only a paycheck in the near-term, but also the longer term assurance that their
job will still be there for them.

        It is critical that this relief is disbursed to small businesses as quickly as possible to help
ensure that no small businesses are forced to choose between solvency and retaining their
employees during this uncertain time. To that end, we urge the Treasury Department and the SBA
to quickly issue publicly-available, comprehensive guidance to lenders and businesses on the
assistance available, including the Paycheck Protection Program, emergency Economic Injury
Disaster Loan grants, and debt relief provisions. We also ask that you continue to expeditiously
upgrade and update the SBA website so that it is simple for borrowers to find links to the programs
authorized under the CARES Act, identify Paycheck Protection Program lenders, and apply for the
paycheck and grant assistance.

       As all of government works to stop the spread of COVID-19, it is incumbent upon
Congress and your agencies to work together to ensure that workers and small businesses have
every opportunity afforded by this law to provide for and enjoy the dignity of work, which is
second only to the immediate health and safety of Americans, and the need for workers and
families to continue to receive income to pay their bills.
         Thank you for your immediate attention to these matters. We stand ready to assist your
efforts to implement the Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act. Thank you for your
efforts.
                                        Sincerely,

       ___________________________                      ____________________________
       Marco Rubio                                      Benjamin L. Cardin
       Chairman                                         Ranking Member
       Senate Committee on Small Business               Senate Committee on Small Business
       and Entrepreneurship                             and Entrepreneurship

       ___________________________                      ____________________________
       Susan Collins                                    Jeanne Shaheen
       Chairman                                         Member
       Senate Special Committee on Aging                Senate Committee on Small Business
                                                        and Entrepreneurship

File and source

File

2020-03-30_cardin-to-sba-treasury_cardin-bipartisan-senate-task-force-urge-sba-treasury-d.lettertext.txt

Size

3,513 bytes

SHA-256

c18f03d77fb1d0cc0ea6d402a82eb371cad33d028d58023acb6ff68724fd0892

Our copy

2020-03-30_cardin-to-sba-treasury_cardin-bipartisan-senate-task-force-urge-sba-treasury-d.lettertext.txt

Original

No public link identified.