The representatives will act quickly to extend this important lifeline for the small employers as new loans cannot be issued until the bill that passed the senate last night is enacted and signed into law even approximately 130 billion. Senator marco rubio, ben cardin and jean shaheen for their continued work on this vital program. Back in march we looked at ways they could help small employers and employees survive this pandemic. We put forth a bold plan is Paycheck Protection Program to help small employers and their employees. It was straightforward and provides forgivable loans to small employers to help them maintain that vital connection with employees so both code rebounding five once the pandemic passes. In some cases thats meant that a Small Business could retain an employee that otherwise would have been laid off. In others it meant they could recallla workers that had alreay been laid off and get it allow employers to continue to safety checks to employees that had been furloughed so we could keep that link between employers and their employees so that when the reopening of kurt, they could be reunited quickly and the business gets up and running morent rapidly. In response to this program has been phenomenal. Since its march and early april, its provided 518 billion in the forgivable loans to 4. 8 million small employers across the nation. Nearly three out of every four smallbusiness respondents reported that they had received assistance under the program. Theyve received forgivable loans totaling more than 2. 2 billion. Madam president , to give you an idea of how much the stimulus is, that is equal to almost half of the entire state budget. That works out to an average of 83,400 which translates with approximately seven employees. All told, this program is helping to sustain nearly 200,000 jobs in the state of maine. As the secretary testified last month, quote, the Paycheck Protection Program is supporting the employment of approximately 50 million with 75 of the smallbusiness payroll in all 50 states. This is an extraordinary achievement. Its made a. Difference to our small employers and its kept our Small Businesses afloat when we first drafted this program in early march we didnt know how long the government ordered closures with last. Most of them hadnt even gone into effect at the time that we drafted the law. Wthey also didnt know how sevet the impact of the government ordered closureswo would be. We didnt know how long the pandemic would last. How i wish we could announce today that covid19 had been conquered, that american Small Businesses were for rushing once again and the millions of jobs that they provide had been fully restored. But unfortunately, that is not the a case. We have a long road ahead of us. According to a survey released last week by the organization dedicateded to providing a voice for americas Small Businesses, half of its members anticipate needing additional f Financial Support in the next 12 months. Madam president , i fear that if Congress Fails to act despite the good work today, millions of Small Businesses will be put at risk if millions of jobs will be lost. A case study of how the pandemic has the viability of Small Businesses can be found in the tourism sector. Tourism is one of thes states largest economic sectors. It supports 110,000 jobs, that is one out of every six jobs in the state. In 2018, the expenditures exceeded 6. 2 billion. That is 7 million per day. In late march, there was the expectation that the 2020 tourism season would certainly be lower than the norm. But enough for the tourism businessewith the tourismbusine. Madam president , as the fourth of july rolls closer, near empty hotels and restaurants portend a profound and longlasting disaster as many of the states seasonal businesses rely on the busy Summer Season to pay their major bills for the year including their mortgage and property taxes, not to mention their allimportant employees. Just two weeks ago, an innkeeper in maine told me that the inwood normally have a 94 occupancy rate at this point in the summer. Madam president , sheikh currently has an occupancy rate of 6 . As one observer put it, the word Vacation Land that appears on our license plates might be replaced with vacant sealand. I have heard so many hotel owners throughout maine and their stories will have a familiar theme. Reservations made months ago in july and august are being canceled and cancellations for the fall are also starting to come in. In addition to putting hotel staff at risk of losing their jobs or having their hours cut drastically or not being hired in the first place, the vendors that supply these establishments are losing sales, local retailers and restaurants are losing. Extensions are being postponed causing harm for local tradespeople. I talked to a Restaurant Owner that operates a wonderful restaurant in portland. Right now she has to depend on outside seating and lives in fear of a bad storm where people are not going to be able to eat outside. Only slowly is maine allowing in restaurant eating to resume in the most populous parts of the state. All of us understand we have to put the health of people first. The restaurants are getting desperate and trying hard to come by with all of the cdc regulation and there is no doubt similar disruptions are occurring throughout the country. Thats whyag its important that we reach bipartisan agreements to allow the Small Businesses that have been especially hard hit by the pandemic to receive additional forgivable loan as we continue the bipartisan negotiation i come to the fore to outline some of my own priorities for a paycheck protection one. First i do believe we will achieve bipartisan agreements to allow the hardest hit small employers that have seen revenues declined by 50 or more in any quarter this year compared to the same quarter last year to receive an additional loan. This is essential to the ability of the businesses t businesses e fight against covid19. Second, because we must stretch theth 130 million that remainsn the funds as long as we possibly can, i support limiting eligibility to those that have 300 rather than 500 or fewer with a special provision for seasonal employers. Third, i believe we need to expand forgivable experiences in common sense ways. For example, we should allow forgiveness for supplier costs and assessments in facility modifications and personal protective equipment and players are vying to protect their employees and their customers such as plexiglass, patio installations for outdoor dining, g masks, gloves, that kd of equipment. Those that are facing restrictions and struggling to get up quality food supply they need. We should also clarify employerprovided Group Health Benefits are included in the forgivable payroll cuts. Fourth, we should expect expand to the small organizations that are not lobbying organizations. Im talking about local chambers of commerce, Economic Development associations that support a the trade which are doing a great job and are struggling to survive themselv themselves. This we should clarify in statute that forgivable loans be sent through december 31 and allowed to apply for loan forgiveness at the time of their choosing after eight weeks from the loan origination. And it has become clear that millions of small employers need additional help if they are to keep their heads above water. Also it has been clear many businesses have modified operations to protect customers to mitigate the spread of the covid virus. Most of all, we need to always keep in mind we are talking about employees it is the Small Businesses of our country that employees the majority of the people who are working. We are close to reaching a bipartisan agreement i know we will be working very hard over the recess to do so and i also know that the Small Businesses struggling that relief cannot come soon enough thank you to my colleagues senators rubio and cardin and shaheen for their goodfaith efforts to reach an agreement and i yield the floor thank you. Madam president , yesterday i came before the chamber and i made the case for why Congress Needs to begin negotiations on another covid19 emergency supplemental bill and do it now. The needs are real and immediate. In fact the house past the heroes act should began those negotiations the first week and passed it but we didnt we should have done at the second week, we didnt may be the third week after the past it, we didnt the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. Every day sometimes i talk to people hundreds added time with the statewide Conference Call and they hear the urgent need from Small Businesses to families, schools, hospitals, fl employees, so today i want to talk about one of those urgent needs, funding for the United States citizenship and immigration services. And they play an Important Role of the immigration system to process request for immigration benefits and americans citizenship and asylumseekers. The agency is staffed by more than 19000 dedicated men and women across the country including roughly 1700 and my home state of vermont. Last friday sent out to 15350 of the 19000 employees effective next month, august 3r. Four weeks from now. In vermont, 1111 men and women received this notice. Thats over 65 percent of the workforce in vermont. These are men and women day after day do important work for the nation and continue to do that work every day even during the pandemic they have been doing it effectively after august 3rd or a month from now if they can no longer do their job they will no longer receive a paycheck. Nationwide 13350 new reasons why the Senate Must Act for the real and immediate need for the Senate Majority to make that possible now. We have lost six weeks waiting for the house to act on this its time the senate acts. I have been ringing the alarm bells for more than a month on this issue due to declining revenue immigration related application fees come into us the isc agency is facing a budget shortfall one. 2 billion dollars and that is a result of the shortfall. Us cis simply says they cannot pay employees with revenues they doav not have the shortfall is not entirely due to covid19 the agency has not lived the budget over the last three years of this administration and frankly the Trump Administration and mismanagement and extreme immigration policy have only worsened the situation. Was part of theas president s efforts to erase our identity as a nation of immigrants, not just try to the asylumseekers and refugees but to restrict all immigration to this country creating obstacles her immigrant workers even in the Current Health emergency to impose additional restrictions nothing to do with Public Health andas us cis cannot issue these as a result of the anti immigrant policies this budget avshortfall is real we have to address it not only disrupting those Critical Services it will cause unnecessary hardships of federal contractors at a time when we are already doing with record job losses. It will also cause hardship across the nation these are communities already struggling with the pandemic and we are dealing with people who has skills built up over years of experience so lets craft a fair responsible solution to this problem to require emergency appropriations that legislation to ensure transparency and accountability and time is of the essence. I know the vicechairman of the Appropriations Committee with the vast majority with a possible appropriations bill and there has been a concern by the republican majority not because they dont want something on covid. So they were here as i do every single day that there is a need to do something regarding covid. There has been numerous calls from myself and democratic leadership and despite this calls the republican majority has refused to move forward on the emergency appropriations bill to address this and other Critical Issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic. We should not wait any longer. In fact we should not i call majority leader mcconnell to begin on the covid19 emergency relief bill now. So we can solve this problem the senate is about to recess for two weeks millions of people working from home including the u. S. Senate told me could do our job wherever we are located. My staff and i worked seven days a week sometimes very late into the night and all from central locations we have the appropriations bill that almost all republicans and democrats ordered because people work together. And we pass the legislation this country needed. So we can and should begin by partisan negotiations during the next two weeks so when the senate is back in session we have legislation to consider we can act the ball on a bill into law expeditiously theres things they want to change vote them up or down we should be willing to stand here to vote and then we can enact a bill into law expeditiously. The American People deserve no less then and women from us cis deserve no less. The men and women of every single one of our states deserve no less there are 100 of us surely we can work together. We have done it before weve done the Appropriations Bills we have voted for and against amendments and then what is best for the country lets dont be afraid to vote i see my distinguish one from texas on the floor so i will yield the floor. This is a crisis. People are losing their lives. We were going down from 30000 to 25 and 20 now we go up. I do think there is a line where one should not cross where governmental power is exclusively for personal benefi benefit. We will stand proud and tall. Church that evening amid the violence in the white house. The subcoit
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