Rep. Chip Roy On The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act

Statement

Rep. Chip Roy released the following statement Thursday evening regarding H.R. 266 -- Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act:

This evening I voted in favor of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. I did so because it provides badly needed funding for America's small businesses. Our small businesses -- restaurants, bed and breakfasts, medical offices, barbers, etc. -- need this money to stay afloat while the government keeps telling people to remain home.

I did, however, vote for the bill with serious reservations.

For starters, while it provides funding that we need to get in the hands of our small business owners, it did not include the necessary changes required to help stop of our most loved community treasures from shutting down.

The loans are one-size fits all and do not adjust according to different business structures. Too many mom and pop shops are stuck, unable to hire back the very workers they need to meet the requirements for the PPP loans. And because, through enhanced Unemployment Insurance, we are paying folks more NOT to work than TO WORK, small businesses aren't able to hire them back. On top of that, we are effectively pouring gasoline on the situation every day we fail to provide these owners with a start date for the economy. They can't plan for a future they don't know. Furthermore, they can't plan for how many folks will show up to their businesses once the government gives the green light (lag time). There are too many questions and not enough answers.

The best thing we can do is re-start the economy as fully as possible as soon as possible while making necessary adjustments to the PPP program, or consider alternative approaches, that will have funds flow to all businesses in a way that consider the predicament in which they have been placed. We're not there yet.

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