After voting in favor of Phase 3.5 COVID-19 response legislation which heads to President Trump for his signature, Congressman Fred Keller joined News Talk 104.1 Thursday evening for a wide ranging interview.
Topics covered included funding for small business relief programs, hospitals, and testing along with the next steps to reopening the economy.
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Fred Keller (R-PA) Thursday returned to Washington, D.C. where he voted in support of H.R. 266, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. The legislation includes the following provisions to help small businesses and provide funding for hospitals and testing:
- $310 billion in additional lending authority for the Paycheck Protection Program
- $60 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program
- $75 billion for hospitals
- $25 billion for virus testing
The legislation also clarifies that farms meeting the small business thresholds for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program can utilize the program.
On passage of the legislation, Congressman Fred Keller (R-PA) made the following statement:
“The Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program have been important and successful programs in keeping small businesses open and people hired during this pandemic. Every dollar used in these programs to keep businesses operating and people employed is a dollar invested in our economic recovery — and also a dollar not spent on unemployment.
“These important programs should have been reauthorized before running out of money over a week ago, but Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Schumer injected partisan politics into the process and caused unnecessary delay in reauthorizing funding. That decision hurt small businesses and families and damaged our ability to recover from the economic effects of this pandemic.
“Before Congress even discusses the need for another relief bill, we need to see the effect of the funding and programs Congress has already passed. Until the nearly $3 trillion Congress approved to combat the virus’ public health and economic impacts is fully realized, we should not be spending any more taxpayer money, and we certainly should not be engaging in ‘transformative’ or ‘far-reaching’ partisan policy changes.”
