Why Congress Needs to Pass COVID Legislation Now
Strengthened unemployment compensation, one of the key economic provisions in the CARES Act, has expired. And the Congress has not yet acted to renew it. More than 30 million Americans on unemployment insurance face a bleak job market, and many owe rent or mortgages and other bills. They (and their landlords, banks and creditors) need help now.
And the overall economy still needs firm support and stimulus under the weight of a continuing, if not worsening, pandemic. Facing a crucial task, Washington decisionmakers need to act now, and do it right.
Beyond speed, policymakers must be bold. To set the economy on a sound and safe course in these few available days, our elected policymakers today must focus first on defeating the pandemic and providing relief to citizens and employers that continue to be adversely affected.
But, at the same time, the federal government must help to get America “back to work,” providing opportunities for all citizens to responsibly and safely return to an economy that provides high levels of employment, production and consumption, in an environment where the responsibility for economic growth can once again rest on the private sector.
A comprehensive program must include:
The unemployed. Tens of millions of unemployed persons have nowhere to look for jobs. Outdated state unemployment systems simply cannot implement precise but complicated benefit formulas. Policymakers need to fill the gap with a rough-justice $500 unemployment add-on until federal technical and financial assistance can build working state administrative systems to implement better benefit formulas in January. Meanwhile, the unspent funds in the small business Paycheck Protection Program must be directed to truly small businesses, including minority-owned businesses, in a more flexible way — so that they can retain employees. Today’s unemployed must not be rejected for federal food aid and evictions in a pandemic are in no one’s interest. Eligibility criteria for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program should be loosened and a block grant program enacted to target eviction-prevention resources to cases of genuine need.
Pandemic health care priorities. We must provide more support for sound hospitals first and foremost to alleviate suffering, but also to have a healthy workforce for the economy to recover. More must be done to ensure adequate supplies, aggressive testing and contact tracing, new treatments, and vaccine development.
State and local governments. Some policymakers resist aid to states and municipalities because they believe it would reward past irresponsibility. But these governments budgets have taken an enormous hit just responding to the pandemic. Layoffs of police, firefighters, teachers and sanitation workers will be bad for citizens and bad for the economy as a whole. Keying fiscal aid to declines in revenue — from an objective baseline, like last year’s actual tax collections — would be in no way a bailout for prior mistakes.
K-12 schools. Schools must get help for their added pandemic costs. A block grant should be established to cover the higher costs of delivering quality education because of the pandemic. Past crises, like the Great Recession, permanently reduced achievement among American students, with negative effects particularly concentrated in lower-income school districts.
Early education and child care. This essential low-profit industry needs help to stay afloat, and support our economy at the same time. A childcare stabilization fund is needed to ensure access to early education programs and safe, high-quality childcare, which is essential for parents to go back to work, and for the development of children.
A liability shield. Businesses that truly comply with federal and local health standards should not be closed because of lawsuits in this unknowable and unpredictable pandemic.
Infrastructure. While plans for a national infrastructure program cannot be legislated now, policymakers can ensure that planned infrastructure improvements are not postponed for lack of funds. Funding the continuation of federal and state infrastructure programs during the pandemic is the simplest and quickest way to get the economy back on track. Access to broadband is urgently needed for all students, remote workers and displaced workers so they can remotely learn, work and have access to job information.
Training. Unemployed and furloughed workers should have every opportunity to use this painful time to learn new skills either by direct support or support to institutions. At a minimum, they can have financial access to community colleges, which in turn need resources to increase their capacities and their course offerings. The longer the recession lasts, the more difficult recovery becomes as extended unemployment leads to a deterioration of skills.
Safe, accessible and credible elections. Finally, to keep our democracy whole, no voter should be forced to take a risk to cast a ballot. States and localities need funds to make remote voting safe, secure, and accurate.
This legislation is truly urgent. We need action now.
W. Bowman Cutter is senior fellow and director of the Next American Economy project at the Roosevelt Institute. He was director of the National Economic Council and deputy assistant to the President in the Clinton administration. He is co-chair of the ad hoc subcommittee on COVID-19 for theCommittee for Economic Development of the Conference Board (CED). Joseph E. Kasputys is chairman and CEO of Economic Ventures. He was assistant secretary of the Commerce Department in the Ford administration. He is co-chair of CED’s ad hoc subcommittee on COVID-19. Joseph J. Minarik is a senior vice president with CED. He was chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration.
