Top Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Friday that the administration is looking at executive and legislative options to ensure that businesses aren’t held legally responsible for customers becoming infected with the coronavirus.
“I don’t think there should be a lawsuit. I think we should help them now,” Kudlow said Friday. “We may help them with assistance if they go to a hospital or provider, government, federal, state, local to pay for it.”
“Some of it can be done through executive order or regulatory changes,” he said. “Some of it might require legislation. We’re looking at it right now. We’re looking at all the options.”
Congressional Republicans have warned that reopening businesses risks a wave of lawsuits by employees and customers, and they have weighed legislation to limit businesses’ liability.
“It’s going to be an issue that, potentially, we might have to get into,” Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, told the Washington Examiner. “I heard this initially, even from grocery stores, convenience stores that are trying to provide services in the way of sale of food and essentials — that if one of their employees gets sick, then are they going to close the store, which is essential for people?”
However, Democrats would generally rather focus on workplace safety instead of protecting employers from lawsuit liability.
“I’ve never really heard of a business being sued because someone got sick unless it was the business’s fault. Nobody blames a business for the coronavirus,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said on Friday.
