The House passed sweeping legislation this weekend to respond to the spread of the coronavirus. This bill is necessary: It provides much-needed funding and aid and helps outline how the federal government will continue to respond to this crisis. But it could have been better.
Let’s start with what the 110-page bill, hammered out by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, includes:
- Free coronavirus testing under Medicaid, Medicare, and private health insurers.
- Additional funding for food security programs, such as the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Senior Nutrition Program, and state waivers for children who normally receive meals at school.
- Paid sick leave for employees at companies with fewer than 500 employees. These companies must provide two weeks of paid sick leave, and they will receive tax credits of up to 100% of the wages they pay out.
- Additional unemployment insurance funding for states unable to meet the increased demands.
- Additional Medicaid funding through 2021. The bill also strips employment requirements for Medicaid for the next year.
These policies represent steps in the right direction, but there was little time to read, let alone amend or debate them, according to Republican Rep. Chip Roy. As a result, the bill is inadequate. The paid sick leave requirement is troubling, even. As it stands, this policy exempts almost every major corporation and company, since the only employers affected are those with 500 or fewer employees. That’s less than 20% of the workforce.
So not only is this policy inefficient — well over half of the workforce will still be without paid sick leave — but Roy rightly points out that it’s “corporate welfare cronyism,” passed at the expense of small and mid-size businesses. Those businesses, Roy added, must now rely on tax credits to make up the difference, even though the credits will not cover the entirety of costs accrued.
“To solve that problem, I suggest — and would have on Friday, had we had any chance to amend — offering very expensive and immediate small businesses loans, and other measures to keep businesses afloat through the negative impacts of government calls to stay home,” Roy said in a statement on Twitter.
Luckily, the Trump administration is already pumping money into the Small Business Administration to alleviate the financial burden small businesses will undoubtedly carry. Companies affected by the coronavirus will be given $50 billion more in low-interest loans, and payroll taxes will be cut significantly. But as the supply chain tightens, this might not be enough.
Even if the Senate amends this requirement and provides additional aid for small businesses, the House’s blatant preference for large corporations is still a problem, as Roy rightly pointed out.
“The next round of legislation must not be laden with corporate welfare,” said independent Rep. Justin Amash, who also criticized the House for rushing the approval process. “Let’s ensure all Americans get relief to maintain stability during this pandemic, but taxpayers should not be on the hook to benefit specific industries. Everyone is hurting, not just a few big companies.”
There are other holes in the bill as well. Roy argued that “it’s not clear the unemployment insurance relief in the House bill will sufficiently or effectively deal with the magnitude of the impact” this virus will have. And the package still does not detail how the federal government will make up for testing shortages across the nation.
Simply writing a check will not be enough. Our legislators must think through the complexity of this crisis and make sure that the money provided is money that will be well spent. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seems to understand that this approach is necessary because he is urging Senate Republicans to read thoroughly and carefully consider the entirety of the bill before they vote for it.
This nation needs quick and decisive leadership, but we also need thoughtful prudence. The Senate has an opportunity to fix the House bill’s shortcomings, and that might require more time. Right now, that delay is necessary. Rushing the legislative process will not help if the legislation itself is inept. It will only make things worse in the long run. So let’s do this right.
