Congressman Cohen Urges Coronavirus Recovery Package Negotiators to Prioritize Help to Small and Minority Businesses

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today wrote to Democratic leaders negotiating the next round of coronavirus pandemic economic relief to urge them to prioritize the needs of small and minority businesses in the Paycheck Protection Program and to ensure there are proper levels of transparency in place.

Congressman Cohen also said that negotiators should include provisions of the Reviving the Economy Sustainably Towards a Recovery in Twenty-Twenty (RESTART) Act and the Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed To Survive (RESTAURANTS) Act to support the small- and mid-sized businesses most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The RESTART Act would provide small and medium-sized businesses with liquidity to get their businesses up and running again. The RESTAURANTS Act would provide critical assistance to an industry that has been uniquely devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic with employment down by 3.1 million people since February.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

"The House approved $3 trillion in aid through the Heroes Act in mid-May, which would extend the $600 in supplemental unemployment benefits and would provide continued assistance for other critical needs. It is unfathomable that the Senate continues to push the ‘pause' button and refuses to address what are obvious and dire needs. My letter today to our Democratic negotiators is intended to present the must-pass elements of any future recovery bill. We owe it to those most severely affected by both the virus and its economic fallout to act swiftly to meet real human needs and to jettison for now the unrelated issues that appear to be preventing a reasonable compromise. The CARES Act sent too much money to those who didn't need it. The new bill, based on the Heroes Act, needs to send aid those in true need."

See the text of the letter here.