For Immediate Release From AOL!
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced changes Monday to target more federal pandemic assistance to the nation’s smallest businesses and ventures owned by women and people of color.
Biden says a lot of these mom and pop businesses “got muscled out of the way” by larger businesses seeking federal money in the early days of the pandemic. He said changes taking effect Wednesday will provide long overdue aid to these smaller enterprises that he says are being “crushed” by the pandemic-driven economic downturn.
"America’s small businesses are hurting, hurting badly and they need help now,” Biden said.
Under the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program, the administration is establishing a two-week window, starting Wednesday, in which only businesses with fewer than 20 employees — the overwhelming majority of small businesses — can apply for the forgivable loans.
Biden's team is also carving out $1 billion to direct toward sole proprietors, such as home contractors and beauticians, the majority of which are owned by women and people of color.
Other efforts will remove a prohibition on lending to a company with at least 20% ownership by a person arrested or convicted for a nonfraud felony in the prior year, as well as allowing those behind on their federal student loans to seek relief through the program. The administration is also clarifying that noncitizen legal residents can apply to the program.
First rolled out in the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic and renewed in December, the program was meant to help keep Americans employed during the economic downturn. It allows small and mid-size businesses suffering loss of revenue to access federal loans, which are forgivable if 60% of the loan is spent on payroll and the balance on other qualified expenses.
The Biden effort is aimed at correcting disparities in how the program was administered by the Trump administration.
Data from the Paycheck Protection Program released Dec. 1 and analyzed by The Associated Press show that many minority owners desperate for a relief loan didn’t receive one until the PPP’s last few weeks while many more white business owners were able to get loans earlier in the program.
The program, which began April 3 and ended Aug. 8 and handed out 5.2 million loans worth $525 billion, helped many businesses stay afloat when government measures to control the coronavirus forced many to shut down or operate at a diminished capacity.
The latest PPP, which began Jan. 11 and runs through the end of March, has already paid out $133.5 billion in loans — about half of the $284 billion allocated by Congress — with an average loan under $74,000.
A further renewal of the program is not included in Biden's $1.9 trillion “ American Rescue Plan,” which he hopes Congress will pass in the coming weeks.
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The Biden administration says if Congress passes the proposed $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, we won’t have to “wait for years for the economy to return to full employment,” as two members of the Council of Economic Advisers put it in a recent White House blog post.
It’s the right goal. In April 2017, the unemployment rate dipped below what the Congressional Budget Office projected as full employment. It stayed there until the pandemic. That created intense competition for employees and drove wage growth at or above 3% for 20 consecutive pre-pandemic months. By 2019 median family income hit a record high, the poverty rate declined to a record low, and income inequality decreased for the second year in a row.
The jobs picture is all but certain to improve in a year when people are getting vaccinated and states are opening their economies. The labor market will improve in the coming months if the government does nothing. But massive spending will hurt more than it helps.
Business owners recognize that government spending can put more money into circulation and may result in increased sales. But they also know that government largess—no matter how generous—is finite. If you believe a revenue source is going to dry up, you don’t invest in growth and hiring based on its continuing.
Read the full article HERE!:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/stimulus-does... ********
"Democrats Put Biden Stimulus on 10-Day Fast Track for House Vote"
The House is aiming to vote Feb. 26 on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, as Democrats pivot quickly to their top priorities after Donald Trump’s impeachment trial ended in acquittal.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer laid out the schedule in a call with fellow Democrats, according to two people familiar with the discussion, although one of the people cautioned that the timing could still shift.
The tight timeline reflects the urgency to approve another round of stimulus payments, jobless compensation and funding for schools and vaccines before key benefits from the last round of pandemic aid expire on March 14. In less than four weeks, Democrats are attempting to pass a bill out of the House and get all 50 Senate Democrats to back the legislation.
Read the full article HERE!:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20... ********
"Biden's 1.9T Relief Stimulus Package Passes House Committee"
The House Budget Committee approved President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on Monday.
The American Rescue Plan will include $1,400 stimulus checks for Americans making less than $75,000 a year and a minimum wage increase of $15 an hour—two key pieces of the legislation that have divided Democrats and Republicans. The bill also includes an increase in the child tax credit and direct funding to state and local governments.
Read the full article HERE!:
https://www.newsweek.com/bidens-19t-relief...
Posted By: agnes levine
Monday, February 22nd 2021 at 3:28PM
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