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Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ranking Member Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME), and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) release the final Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act

“Your proposed $350 billion loan guaranty and assistance package, the Keeping Workers Paid and Employed Act of 2020, is critical to the economic survival of millions of businesses and their employees right now,” wrote Mark Wilson, President & CEO, Florida Chamber of Commerce. “The Florida Chamber of Commerce fully supports your efforts and we stand ready to continue to assist you in every way we can in the weeks and months ahead as we unite to protect our fellow citizens’ health and economic well-being and secure Florida’s future.”
 
“The CARES Act is both timely and necessary to ensure the survival and economic strength of the small business community which is the very foundation of the economic strength of the Nation,” wrote C. Edward Rowe III, President & CEO, America’s SBDC. “It will bring relief to cash strapped small businesses and offer them the prospect of a future. It will support them in their desire to aid their employees, and keep their businesses, their investment in the American Dream, alive.” 
 
“We applaud you for your proposal for small businesses because it respects the integrity of employers, strengthens how they already operate business, and removes government bureaucracy,” wrote members of American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) and Immigration Partnership and Coalition (IMPAC) Fund. “Your focus on assisting small businesses will turn out to be one of the most important efforts we can undertake to make sure the negative impacts of this crisis are as short-lived as possible.” 
 
“Your bill, the Keeping Workers Paid and Employed Act, included in the CARES Act, supports the nation’s small business owners at a time of great need by expanding uses for the Small Business Administration’s 7(a) loans and providing resources to WBCs to provide counseling, training, and other services for small business owners impacted by COVID-19,” wrote Corrine Hodges, CEO, Associations of Women’s Business Centers. “The CARES Act helps illuminate a path forward for these businesses, and those they employ, by providing much needed financial support. For the sake of American entrepreneurs everywhere, their families and employees, and on behalf of all WBCs, we fully endorse this bill and thank you for your support.” 
 
“By utilizing the pre-existing commercial banking system in America to make direct loans, while increasing the capacity of the program to authorize and guarantee these loans, your proposal will get needed working capital to our businesses before it is too late,” wrote the members of the Greater New Orleans, Inc., the regional economic development organization serving the 10-parish region of Southeast Louisiana 
 
“We support provisions based on Sen. Marco Rubio’s proposal for small businesses of up to 500 employees to provide loans that will be converted to grants to the extent that employers use the funds to keep their employees on the payroll,” wrote Thomas Donohue, CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
 
“Small business employers are job creators. Small business employers want to keep their employees on salary during this crisis,” wrote 25 small business advocacy organizations in a letter led by the Job Creators Network. “A small business emergency loan program that includes forgiveness for an appropriate percentage of payroll for any small business that keeps their employees on salary will allow small businesses to keep America employed.”
 
“This legislation will empower the Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide critical financial assistance to small businesses across America as they face uniquely trying times,” wrote James Tobin III, Executive Vice President & Chief Lobbyist, National Association of Home Builders.
 
“The small business provisions proposed in the CARES Act will enable IEC’s merit shop electrical contractors weather the unprecedented economic times that all businesses will be facing in the coming months,” wrote Jason Todd, Vice President, Independent Electrical Contractors. “IEC strongly urges Congress to include these small business provisions in Phase 3 of the COVID-19 legislation currently under consideration. These measures will provide additional resources and relief needed for merit shop electrical contractors and their employees to weather what is expected to be a significant economic downturn.”
 
“We endorse ideas like the $300 billion small business package put forward by Small Business Committee Chairman Senator Marco Rubio and Sen. Susan Collins to provide $300 billion in guaranteed small business loans — with the loan being forgiven at the end of the period (hopefully 10 to 12 weeks) if the money is used for payroll and other typical expenses, like increased cleaning costs, to stay afloat,” wrote Kent Knutson, Head of Public Affairs, OYO Hotels and Homes. 
 
“Senators Marco Rubio, Susan Collins, and Lamar Alexander have introduced the Keeping Workers Paid and Employed Act that would provide 100% federally guaranteed loans to employers who maintain their payroll,” wrote Patriot Voices.
 
“This assistance will be needed in addition to financial assistance to cover the small business normal operating daily expenses such as rents, leases, utilities, operating debt from the previous year, and any other normal operating expenses necessary to operate their businesses,” wrote Capt. Jim Green, President, Destin Charter Boat Association. “We appreciate and applaud the bipartisan efforts in Congress, and we urge you all to push this across the finish line with items only concerning the economics of our nation.”