Sen. Young Supports Low-Interest Loans in Next Round of Coronavirus Recovery
As part of NFIB’s Virtual Fly-In, Sen. Todd Young told Indiana NFIB members that Congress needs to continue to help small businesses through these very challenging times so they can make it through this pandemic. Sen. Young said Congress has an economic and moral obligation to help small business, adding that small business is where innovation occurs, that the entrepreneurial spirit is part of our culture.
Sen. Young told Indiana small business owners that the current round of stimulus negotiations has been a challenging negotiation to get another round of stimulus help passed. However, Young said the Senate’s trillion-dollar plan is a good one that focuses on jobs, kids, and healthcare
“I want to get people back to work safely, I’m pushing for liability protection, and want to wind down unemployment insurance that has been a drag on small business owners who did open up so they can get their people back to work.”
Sen. Young mentioned his own legislation, the “Restart Act” which has bi-partisan support. It gives small businesses long term working capital for hardest hit small businesses. It’s a low interest loan that small businesses owners would have 7 years to pay off and most of it would be forgivable if small business owners use the money for rent, payroll, mortgage and other expenses.
Sen. Young told Indiana NFIB members that he things there’s a decent chance that the weekly federal unemployment insurance money payout will continue. “Democrats want to extend that seemingly indefinitely but realistically I think you will see a number more like $300/week down from $600/week. The lower amount will better incentivize people to get back to work. I am open to compromise.”
Sen. Young hopes to improve upon the PPP program in the next round of funding. He added that the bill was drafted and rolled out very fast and it needs improvements, however, it did save 50 million jobs. Moving forward, Sen. Young said he will focus on the smaller, youngest, and hardest hit businesses.
The Senator told Indiana small business owners that his office been working with the Trump Administration to make sure the process to apply for PPP forgiveness is more simplified. Young said he and his office along with the Administration are identifying ways to improve the application process and make it streamlined.
In closing, Sen. Young told small business owners it comes to another round of funding, they need to realize that neither side will get exactly what they want. “There will have to be principle compromises and it won’t be the perfect bill, however, it will result in some much needed to relief to small business owners and I am confident it will happen sometime in September.”
