WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, questioned Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the CARES Act and the need for an additional COVID relief bill.
Senator Tillis on Congress’ need to pass another relief package:
“I believe that we have to look at programs, to take a look at the first in, last out industries. We talked about a lot of them -- restaurants, live performance venues, motor coaches, transportation. There's a lot of work that needs to be done but I don't think anyone can rightfully criticize or suggest that the CARES Act hasn't been anything short of the MVP for stabilizing the economy when we hit the crisis, and you guys were two people on the team that made it successful. But I don't believe that we should be asking Secretary Mnuchin to do Congress' job. If Congress is serious about funding paycheck protection, if they're serious about stabilizing the economy, then get serious about passing a follow up to the CARES Act.”
Senator Tillis on the CARES Act:
“I remember vividly, back in March, when we were negotiating we had an underlying set of assumptions, some that proved to be true, some didn't. We knew we needed to do something big, bold and fast, and we came up with the CARES Act. I think the Paycheck Protection Program saved a lot of jobs, and I also think the Main Street lending facility was a necessary facility, even though at the time, very few of us thought that it would be fully subscribed, and it's proven to be true.”
Senator Tillis on the long-term effects of COVID-19:
“I don't think we're necessarily talking about somebody -- something on the scale of either the first CARES Act or the HEROES Act but something that does provide some of the fundamentals for the businesses, and I think that they do need to be grants, not loans…In North Carolina, we have about 19,000 restaurants, 4,000 of them have closed permanently. So there's a structural element of unemployment, where even when the economy comes raging back, the job creators are not going to come back in time to see that pick up save them in the second half.”
Watch the full video here.
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