Business leaders and Republican lawmakers are vigorously lobbying for liability protections in the next coronavirus relief package, hoping the White House will get strongly behind a plan.
“It is going to have to be on the agenda. I just haven’t heard the administration articulate it yet as a priority,” said one business official.
“It’s something the White House National Economic Council is studying and looking at seriously to protect American workers and businesses,” a White House official said.
Businesses are concerned that efforts to reopen will be hampered by a deluge of lawsuits filed by employees or customers.
“You don’t want these businesses to have to be looking over their shoulders and saying, ‘Am I going to get sued if I bring everybody back to work?'” Club for Growth President David McIntosh told the Washington Examiner.
“You want them to make the decision to open up and go back to work,” he said. “So I think pushing for provision, much like they did after 9/11, that said, we’re not going to hold people liable for anything that happened as a result of the coronavirus outbreak or the shutdown, or reopening. You could tailor it to focus on the crisis that we’ve just been through. Everybody will be on board for that because nobody wants to see a whole bunch of frivolous lawsuits.”
“As people go back to work or go into restaurants or reengage in the economy, there has to be some sort of liability protection out there,” said one former administration official.
Still, the optics for the White House of helping businesses when so many people are out of work, and for businesses partaking in federal assistance, remain a political challenge. “People are really getting angry about who’s getting this money,” the former official said.
Liability protection for businesses, where companies are granted immunity from coronavirus-related damages, are shoring up similarly contentious discussions among lawmakers.
One proposal circulated by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas includes the suggestion of a fund to pay out claims.
Democratic leadership has pushed back on broader discussions, stating that they already agreed to liability protections for personal protective equipment manufacturers and distributors in the second major coronavirus bill on March 18. But business leaders say wider protection is needed.
Signs point to a “longer, more contested debate” over the issue this time, one former administration official told the Washington Examiner. “It’s not going to be a quick package.”
Trade association groups say the White House seems receptive to adding new liability protections, but that the driving force is from the Hill.
“There is going to be a [fourth relief package],” said one business official. “The shape of that and what’s in it will be determined as much on the Hill as in the administration.”
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters at the White House in April that the administration was looking “very carefully” at liability provisions, and in an interview with CNBC later added that, “Somebody’s got to defend the businesses.”
“Larry Kudlow has made some very supportive public comments about it,” said National Association of Manufacturers legal counsel Linda Kelly, whose organization has been in touch with White House officials as well as congressional leadership. “I can certainly say that at least some administration officials are supportive of the idea.”
The White House discussed liability protections in a call with trade association lobbyists last Friday. Senate Republicans held a similar call with the lobbyists.
“There is mutual interest in establishing strong liability for small business owners,” said Kevin Kuhlman, the National Federation of Independent Business’s legislative affairs director.
There are practical hurdles to passing further legislation, said an industry source. Senate leaders appear unwilling to move forward until everybody is back together, and Democratic and Republican lawmakers mounted a “behind-the-scenes insurrection” when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, wanted to come in and process a bill.
The White House’s focus right now is making sure that small businesses and everyday people get through this, said another former administration official. “Their focus has always been this, not just politically, but also in practice,” the former official said. “They want to make sure that jobs are maintained and that blue-collar workers in states that matter feel that the government is there to help them.”
Driving the discussion inside the White House, this former official said, is making sure that voters feel “the government is not there to bail out Wall Street or the big guys, but to make sure assistance is going to the people who feel displaced.”
