WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons joined The Michael Smerconish Program on Sirius XM to provide an update on the federal government’s plan to combat the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease linked with a novel coronavirus, and provide economic relief during the pandemic.
“I expect that in the Senate this morning we will take up and pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which Speaker Pelosi negotiated with Secretary Mnuchin, the House passed very late last night, and the Senate should take up and pass this morning. And I think by the end of this week at the latest, you’ll see a package come together,” Senator Coons said. “I’m on the Small Business Committee, my hope is that working together with the chair, Marco Rubio of Florida, the ranking member, Senator Cardin of Maryland, we’re going to push through what could be as much as $50 billion in short term loans and grants to small businesses that are frankly going to face a critical cash crunch where at the same time they see their revenue dropping off like a rock, and we are asking them to provide paid sick leave for the folks who work there.”
Audio is available here. The full transcript is available below:
Q: Breaking just an hour ago, I’ll read from the Washington Post this headline: “Trump Administration seeks roughly $850 billion in emergency stimulus to confront coronavirus economic fallout”. The lead paragraph says, “’the Trump Administration now asking Congress to approve a massive economic stimulus package of around $850 billion to stanch the economic freefall caused by the coronavirus,’ four officials familiar with the planning said on Tuesday.” I don’t see any reference in the Washington Post story to Senator Mitt Romney’s proposal, which is very Andrew Yang-ish. Romney now saying that each citizen of the United States, all adults, I should be more specific, should receive $1000 in response to fallout from the spread of the disease. Good fodder for us to chat with our friend United States Senator Chris Coons from the great State of Delaware. Hi, Senator. Thanks for coming back to the program.
Sen. Coons: Great to be on with you again Michael.
Q: What reaction do you have to the breaking news of the Administration seeking $850 billion?
Sen. Coons: Well, I’m glad that we now have an active and engaged partner in the Administration in trying to move quickly to respond to this coronavirus epidemic. It has been an interesting, challenging, at times concerning process here in Congress over the last couple of months as we have pushed to try and get rapid testing, full federal participation, and support. And many of us have come back and forth to our home states after talking with and hearing from our governors, our directors of public health, our hospital leaders, and concerned citizens and neighbors to say we have to get more assistance out to infected families, to concerned families, to folks who are facing unemployment or rapid loss whether it's the local barber shop or coffee shop or a hotel or a restaurant, lots of small businesses are seeing their income collapse and millions of families are wondering whether they’re about to get laid off, whether they can get paid sick leave, and what's going to happen to them and their children now that millions of children are home from school. So, Michael, I expect that in the Senate this morning we will take up and pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which Speaker Pelosi negotiated with Secretary Mnuchin, the House passed very late last night, and the Senate should take up and pass this morning. And I think by the end of this week at the latest, you’ll see a package come together. Senator Schumer of New York, who is the Minority Leader, is putting forward about a $750 billion package this morning. I’m about to join a call with him in half an hour about the details of that and somewhere between the Administration’s proposal and the Senate Democrats proposal is where we’ll land. What encourages me is the speed with which it seems we are all determined to act.
Q: So, this morning I went to Starbucks as I normally do, only they were closed, and I was wondering about Ashley who’s the barista who normally serves me my grande decaf. She works for a company with 500 or more workers. What is thus far being offered to someone in her position?
Sen. Coons: Well, I’m trying to make sure I’m on top of these details so let me right up front say the difference between Starbucks nationally and a Starbucks franchise in terms of whether or not they’re covered, and the details about what Starbucks is offering their employees I can’t speak to, but the bill that I just mentioned that we are going to take up and I believe pass today mandates two weeks of paid sick leave for companies that are between 50 and 500. I have gotten lots of calls, and I’ve done outreach calls to folks who operate McDonalds and well-known local restaurants and small hotels and contractors in Delaware about how are we then going to provide some fiscal relief for these employers. But to your point, she should be able to get two weeks of paid sick leave, or Starbucks as a much larger company, as a whole if she works for Starbucks not for that particular franchise, should be providing paid sick leave and the FMLA should provide up to 12 weeks of leave from work without penalty for those who have to stay home to care for a child, a sick family member, or to self-quarantine. This is moving very quickly, Michael, and I’m trying to make sure I’m careful about the details because I know there’s lots of folks who listen to you all over our country who are concerned about it. I’m on the Small Business Committee, my hope is that working together with the chair, Marco Rubio of Florida, the ranking member, Senator Cardin of Maryland, we’re going to push through what could be as much as $50 billion in short term loans and grants to small businesses that are frankly going to face a critical cash crunch where at the same time they see their revenue dropping off like a rock, and we are asking them to provide paid sick leave for the folks who work there. The other piece of this, Michael, is unemployment insurance. A big piece of this package is federal funding to states for unemployment insurance to expand it, and to make it easier to administer, and quicker for people to get, as well as expanded funding for Medicaid. Because when people go on the unemployment rolls, typically they have to use Medicaid for healthcare especially if they had employer provided healthcare before. We’re trying to push for this to be as seamless as possible to make sure that testing for coronavirus is both available widely and free, and we have not hit widely available yet, which is a critical next step. And then last, there’s a lot of investment in this package that we’ll take up today to expand hospital capacity. If you look at what's happened in Italy and throughout Europe and at what's happened in other countries, China and South Korea, lots of those health systems in developed countries have been deeply strained by the number of folks who are coming to ERs. In Wilmington, where I’m from in Delaware, our leading healthcare provider, Christiana Care, just tested 530 people in a drive through testing site that they set up temporarily at our riverfront. We should get those results today or tomorrow, and I think that will be a critical indicator of how do we ramp up testing and make it available to people without them having to go into the ER.
Q: I totally respect that it’s a fluid situation and you know that I would never play gotcha with you.
Sen. Coons: You’re very good Michael, I appreciate that.
Q: You’re just trying to give us good information, and we respect that. I’m thinking Senator of a restaurant last week where we had dinner for a family celebration that is now closed and the waiters and waitresses who waited on us. Will they be able to seek unemployment?
Sen. Coons: They should, if they are unemployed, if they’ve been laid off. If the company closes, we’re trying to encourage companies to keep people on payroll for a few weeks until we see more clearly how long this is going to last, but I respect and recognize that small business owners are also facing very tough choices. In Pennsylvania, restaurants have been ordered closed. In Delaware, they’re allowed to stay open for take-out and for delivery and part of that difference was simply, I’ll just describe this to our governor. Our governor I believe heard from lots of small restaurants that once you close down a McDonalds or a neighborhood restaurant and everybody there goes somewhere else for two months, it's much harder to start back up. It also creates real dislocation for the folks who rely on that restaurant as the place where they work. You’ve also got a lot of food inventory that exactly at the moment that we’ve got lots of people at the margins of our society relying on food banks, there’s going to be huge amounts of food spoiling or wasted, so we’ve got a lot of logistical questions here to sort out. Not every state in our country, in fact I think most states in our country have not directed restaurants and bars to close yet, but that is coming in a lot of areas.
Q: Finally, Senator Coons, the Romney proposal. I’m curious when Andrew Yang was talking about a universal basic income during the debates, what was your gut check on that and has your view changed now?
Sen. Coons: Well, what is being seriously discussed this week is an emergency one-time distribution of $1000 to every adult citizen. That is something that also happened in 2008-2009 in the fiscal crisis. Economists broadly agree that that sort of immediate cash infusion is a good way to help keep movement in our economy, to help particularly vulnerable families who don’t have savings avoid missing their car payments, being evicted, not being able to put food on the table. There are other measures we’re looking at as well. Possible delaying when taxes are due, possibly delaying any payments on federal loans to help students and homeowners. But you know Andrew Yang must be smiling because you’ve got a former Republican candidate for President leading the charge on discussing ‘Let’s send a one-time payment out to everyone’. Yang’s proposal was bolder and broader than that, it was moving towards an annual guaranteed minimal income, and frankly as you know, Michael, better than anyone, the nature of work itself is going to change over the next decade as artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles come into play. Right now, we need to focus on this epidemic and preparing for it, responding to it, and coming through it on the other side, but there are going to be big dislocations. I’ll close on this: if anything, I hope that we all rethink our social practice of shaking hands even in the height of flu season without washing our hands regularly. Something like 16,000 people died of entirely preventable seasonal flu last year and my doctor friends are saying ‘please spread the message that in flu season we should all wash our hands several times a day’ as I am now doing.
Q: Thank you so much, I know you’ve got a busy day. We really appreciate the report from Capitol Hill.
Sen. Coons: Thanks, Michael. Always great to be on with you.
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