Letter to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of the Representatives - Pocan, Cicilline Lead Letter to Protect Small Businesses in Next House COVID-19 Package

Letter

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

Thank you for your leadership during this global pandemic. As you develop a third legislative package in response to the coronavirus outbreak, we encourage you to include additional, immediate, and direct financial assistance to America's millions of small businesses, independent contractors, sole proprietors, and gig economy workers.

The initial House-passed coronavirus measures included strong first steps to begin to ensure many workers are provided the resources they need to survive lost wages during this time. Unfortunately, the tax credits offered to impacted employers are unlikely to address the revenue loss that will occur in the coming months. Small business enterprises will struggle to pay rent, service existing debt, cover utilities, continue to pay insurance, and meet the myriad other expenses they face.

As Congress moves toward a third coronavirus legislative package, we encourage the inclusion of direct cash assistance to cover lost expenses during a time of forced closure or limited operations that is on a scale consistent with the cash assistance likely to be provided to workers soon. We are pleased that policy discussions for the initial coronavirus packages focused on workers, but we fear that if small business concerns aren't addressed in the near-term workers may not have jobs to return to when this pandemic ends. We also believe that small business interests are just as deserving of assistance as large business interests, particularly when they are far more likely to have paid a larger relative share of their income in federal taxes.

We thank you for your consideration of these views and look forward to continuing to work with you on behalf of America's workers, independent contractors, sole proprietors, gig economy workers, and small business community.