Marching Towards Common Ground

As appeared in the September 24, 2020 edition of the Elizabethtown Advocate & Ephrata Review

Nearly a month ago in this column, I shared my frustration about how negotiations regarding critical aid to hardworking families, small businesses, and students and teachers was held up in negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell and President Trump's Administration. Unfortunately, negotiations remain at a standstill, but I am hopeful for progress. Last week, the bipartisan Problem Solver's Caucus, of which I am a member, introduced the "March to Common Ground" COVID-19 stimulus framework in an effort to break the gridlock in Washington.

The Problem Solvers Caucus (PSC) is a group of 50 members of the House of Representatives, comprised of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. We certainly do not agree on every policy, and I am likely the most conservative member of the group, but we agree that sometimes compromise is the only way forward to address challenging issues; our framework is an effort to encourage negotiations to continue and to bring them towards common ground.

The proposal would include additional funding to expand testing and would provide support for healthcare providers. For hardworking families, additional direct payments would be provided similar to how they were administered under the CARES Act. Additionally, aid would be targeted towards individuals struggling with rent, and student loan forbearance would continue through the end of the year.

For individuals who find themselves out of work through no fault of their own, the federal enhancement to unemployment payments would continue at $450 per week for up to eight weeks, until states could implement policies to provide up to 100 percent wage replacement, with up to $600 per week paid for by the federal government. These benefits would continue through January 2021. The Paycheck Protection Program which helps businesses save jobs would be renewed, providing additional flexibility to businesses to use the program with full transparency and a simplified forgiveness protocol. Employers, businesses and similar institutions would also receive liability protections from frivolous lawsuits. K-12 schools, childcare providers and higher education institutions would receive much needed funding to support students, teachers and staff.

Our proposal also contains automatic adjustments to programs, dependent upon the data. Unemployment enhancements could be extended if warranted by the data in February 2021. Additionally, some of the proposed state and local funding could be clawed back depending upon the data. These automatic adjustment provisions are beneficial to ensure that taxpayer funds are being spent effectively, one of my chief priorities as our nation will have to take extraordinary measures in the near future to bring our national debt under control.

The "March to Common Ground" is a starting point for negotiations, it is not the proposal that I would have written if every policy decision were mine alone to make, but it does contain a number of provisions which I support, and it would unquestionably provide assistance to families across our community. This is the essence of compromise, which at times is necessary to advance solutions to challenging problems. I am hopeful that this framework will advance negotiations to a resolution in Congress.