WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss the three national crises our country is experiencing. Senator Coons highlighted today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on police reform, the bipartisan CORPS Act he announced today to expand national service programs to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, and his proposed legislation to offer a second round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans-to-grants to the smallest businesses with the most need.
On police reform, Senator Coons said, “First, we could have a big impact by changing the standard for when it's possible for a federal prosecutor to come in and prosecute a federal civil rights violation. That's a provision in the Senate and the House bills, the one that I'm co-sponsoring, it’s led by Senators Booker and Harris, called the Justice and Policing Act. It would also give subpoena power to the federal Department of Justice to do pattern and practice investigations of police departments that have a long history of abuse in terms of their use of force policies. I do think you'll see broad agreement on changing use of force reporting and on preventing officers who have been decertified in one state from simply moving to another and being rehired by another agency. I suspect you'll see a ban on chokeholds and hopefully the funding, federally as well as the support at the state and local level for the reliable and continuous use of body cams and the release of that information to the public.”
On the CORPS Act, new legislation to expand national service, Senator Coons said, “we are going through three different pandemics at the same time: COVID-19 and the recession and systemic racism. All three of which impact more heavily black and brown communities in America. And this expanded opportunity to earn a college tuition scholarship and to earn a decent wage, this bill would increase the living stipend and provide health insurance for those doing national service. This would create a great new way for folks of all backgrounds in our country to come together and to serve and strengthen our communities.”
On a new small business program proposed with Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Senator Coons said, “[The Prioritized Paycheck Protection Program] would make the second round of PPP loans available first to those companies that have fewer than ten employees and have lost more than half of their income and would allow them a rapid approval for a second PPP round. I'm also actively engaged in supporting a new round of financing through what are called Community Development Financial Institutions or CDFIs. These are often at the very lowest level grassroots organizations that prioritize minority and low-income communities, Stepping Stones Federal Credit Union in my own hometown of Wilmington in the East Side provides affordable mortgages, payday loans, car loans on terms that are very favorable with a locally-based and community-managed financial institution. We're trying to prioritize getting resources out through that vehicle. Responding to the protests of the last three weeks does require comprehensive policing reform, but it also requires more resources for economic opportunity and for health equity so that black and brown communities across the United States see action immediately.”
Full audio and video available here. A full transcript is below.
Q: Senator Coons, good morning, it's good to have you with us. Explain a little bit more about what this bill would do. We've seen so much legislation, so much money thrown at this problem, at this pandemic, what's different about this bill?
Sen. Coons: It's great to be on with you. First what's different about it is how broadly bipartisan it is. We have a dozen initial cosponsors, Democrats from Senators Reed and Duckworth, Booker and Harris to Republican leaders like Senators Wicker and Rubio, Graham and Cornyn. And it would double the number of slots available for local nonprofits to launch new and expanded programs to help us recover from the economic recession – we've had more than 40 million Americans apply for unemployment – and from the pandemic. As Jamil Smith said in your last segment, we are going through three different pandemics at the same time: COVID-19 and the recession and systemic racism. All three of which impact more heavily black and brown communities in America. And this expanded opportunity to earn a college tuition scholarship and to earn a decent wage, this bill would increase the living stipend and provide health insurance for those doing national service. This would create a great new way for folks of all backgrounds in our country to come together and to serve and strengthen our communities.
Q: Senator Coons, it’s Katty Kay here. Economies on both sides of the Atlantic obviously shutdown because of the coronavirus, but what we're seeing coming out of this is actually the unemployment rates right across Europe have ticked up much, much less than here in the United States. Was that a failure of the structure of the original financing, that people didn't get the money in time? Was it not tied to keeping on payroll? What happened there? Why were the Europeans basically able to prevent unemployment because of the coronavirus and the Americans weren't?
Sen. Coons: Well Katty, I won't pretend that I have a deep knowledge of the European labor markets, but my impression is that the assistance from Congress that we provided, about 2.3 trillion in the C.A.R.E.S. Act now two months ago, took a very long time to get out to the average American who was unemployed and the assistance to small and large businesses took a while to get out. In Europe, there is a common practice of job sharing, of keeping people on the payroll but having them take less time, fewer hours, whereas in the United States we tend to have people either on payroll or off payroll. And unfortunately, due to some of the antiquated systems we have here, our federal and state departments of labor took an awfully long time to get unemployment checks out to folks. We're now facing a second wave, I'm concerned, of business shutdowns, so I'm also introducing a bill this week that would extend our Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loan to grant program. For the smallest businesses, we’re going to extend that for a second round for the smallest and hardest hit American businesses to try and avoid another round of layoffs.
Q: Thank you, Senator Coons, I'm so happy to hear you talk about small businesses, and particularly both rural and communities of color and cities, microbusinesses very hard hit and PPP has not been a sufficient solution for them. In anything that you're proposing or that you all are discussing in the Senate, are you going to figure out ways to incorporate the very small mom and pop shops that really prop up communities that maybe have four employees and can't pay the rent?
Sen. Coons: Yes. That's exactly the focus of this prioritized PPP. It would make the second round of PPP loans available first to those companies that have fewer than ten employees and have lost more than half of their income and would allow them a rapid approval for a second PPP round. I'm also actively engaged in supporting a new round of financing through what are called Community Development Financial Institutions or CDFIs. These are often at the very lowest level grassroots organizations that prioritize minority and low-income communities. Stepping Stones Federal Credit Union in my own hometown of Wilmington in the East Side provides affordable mortgages, payday loans, car loans on terms that are very favorable with a locally-based and community-managed financial institution. We're trying to prioritize getting resources out through that vehicle. Responding to the protests of the last three weeks does require comprehensive policing reform, but it also requires more resources for economic opportunity and for health equity, so that black and brown communities across the United States see action immediately.
Q: Senator Coons, the Judiciary Committee where you sit will hold a hearing today on police reform. As you know, there's a lot out there right now proposals, ideas. Democrats in the House have a long list of proposals, of changes they would like to see in American policing. The President today will announce an executive order with his ideas. You know some Republicans in the Senate are also working on their own package. What do you see as plausible coming out of all of this? What concrete changes to policing in America will we see in the next few weeks?
Sen. Coons: Well, policing is mostly a state and local matter, but at the federal level, we can have a big impact. First, we could have a big impact by changing the standard for when it's possible for a federal prosecutor to come in and prosecute a federal civil rights violation. That's a provision in the Senate and the House bills, the one that I'm co-sponsoring, it’s led by Senators Booker and Harris, called the Justice and Policing Act. It would also give subpoena power to the federal Department of Justice to do pattern and practice investigations of police departments that have a long history of abuse in terms of their use of force policies. I do think you'll see broad agreement on changing use of force reporting and on preventing officers who have been decertified in one state from simply moving to another and being rehired by another agency. I suspect you'll see a ban on chokeholds and hopefully the funding, federally as well as the support at the state and local level for the reliable and continuous use of body cams and the release of that information to the public.
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