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Give $350 billion in loans for small businesses to cover salary, wages and benefits, worth 250% of an employer’s monthly payroll, with a maximum loan of $10 million
Include a tax credit for retaining employees, worth up to 50% of wages paid during the crisis, for businesses forced to suspend operations or that have seen gross receipts fall by 50% from the previous year

TheCatt wrote: If people are recommended to have 6 months emergency fund, why aren't businesses?

Cheesecake Factory says it cannot make rent

Cakedaddy wrote: For my situation, I found out today that I DO qualify for unemployment. YAY!! I could be seeing upwards of $300 per week!! If only I had some kids. . . I also learned that as long as we blame COVID-19 for the temporary work stop, my UIA account will not be charged. YAY!! So, two things they are doing for us. I'm also told they are working on grants for small businesses. And when I hear grant, I think free money (as in, not a loan and don't have to pay it back). If that works out, that's more free money! If all that actually happens this way (I don't get charged for the unemployment benefits AND I get some free grant money), the techs will see a bigger bonus this year. I don't need the money, but I'll take it if it's there. And to easy my conscience of being a freeloader riding the government money train, I'll pass it on to them who will feel this more than I will.

Along with this, I'm probably going to apply to defer my mortgage payments for now, just in case. I'm told no interest, no late fees, etc. Just a pause. As well as secure a 'low interest' loan from the state, again, just in case. So, perhaps that is also what Cheesecake is doing. Keep as much cash as you can for as long as you can. Landlords SHOULD be lenient right now given the situation. I realize they have bills too, etc. But perhaps their debtors can hit pause, etc. If everyone hit pause, who's at the top that would feel it? I mean, money doesn't just go away as it's spent. It keep changing hands. So, what's the affect of a full scale pause on debt?

TheCatt wrote: If people are recommended to have 6 months emergency fund, why aren't businesses?

Troy wrote: What are companies doing with all these profits?

Along with a temporary repeal of alcohol excise taxes for makers of hand sanitizer are provisions that would ban companies that receive federal loans from weighing in on efforts by their employees to form labor unions.

Community and regional banks each scored wins on separate measures to allow them to reduce capital requirements so they can make more loans.

Democrats added language that would ban the use of any money in the legislation to pay for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and Republicans added a measure to promote sexual abstinence.

Some special-interest wins resulted from efforts to keep things out of the bill.

Lobbyists for the banking industry and credit bureaus defeated a proposal from Democratic lawmakers that would have suspended reporting of negative credit information to credit-card issuers and banks for four months in an attempt to help laid-off workers who are likely to miss bill payments because of the economic crisis.

The industry argued that blocking reports would undermine consumers’ access to credit in the future.

Makers of over-the-counter drugs, such as Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol and Benadryl, won inclusion of a long-sought bill to change the federal approval process for new products.

The industry attached an existing bill to the stimulus package that includes several wins, such as an 18-month marketing exclusivity period on new products.

The bill also streamlines the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process for new products, a change sought for years by the trade association that represents companies such as Procter & Gamble, Bayer Consumer Health and Bausch & Lomb.

Tucked inside the FDA bill was a separate measure championed by makers of sunscreen such as Coppertone and Banana Boat. U.S. sunscreen manufacturers won language that halts an FDA review into whether the ingredients of most widely used sunscreens are harmful.

Under a measure hitching a ride on the stimulus, the FDA would be required to begin a new review process that allows for more input from the industry and scientists.

Several sunscreen manufacturers, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association and melanoma-patient advocacy groups called for the change after the FDA last year initiated a safety review of the sunscreen ingredients using a process they thought was unfair.

The changes sought by the sunscreen makers and the over-the-counter companies were part of legislation that had been advanced by former Sen. Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.), a survivor of melanoma who resigned from the Senate last year due to other health issues.

Industry lobbyists say that other Republicans added the sunscreen measures to the stimulus to help establish Mr. Isakson’s legacy.

Meanwhile, other parts of the government are making policy changes backed by industries to soften the economic blow of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

On Thursday, the State Department relaxed some requirements, such as an in-person interview, for foreign workers who want to come to the U.S. to work on farms. As many as one in 10 workers on a farm are seasonal guest workers who need special visas to enter the country.

Dave Puglia, the president of the Western Growers Association, said in a statement that the change was needed because “American farmers are dependent on guest workers” and U.S. consumers are “dependent on the food from these harvests for continued sustenance during the present crisis.”

Separately, the stimulus legislation provides $300 million to help the U.S. seafood industry, including commercial and charter fishermen.

But seafood companies continue to press for a separate change in immigration policy that would help ensure that processing plants in Alaska have enough workers to handle this summer’s salmon catch.

Thousands of seasonal workers now working in processing plants for the pollock-fishing season would be allowed to remain in the U.S. between the end of the current fishing season next month and the start of salmon season this summer.

Without the change, seasonal workers would be required to go home between seasons and seafood companies worry that they wouldn’t be allowed back into the U.S. due to the coronavirus.

“It is essential that the entire seafood value chain be helped,” said Gavin Gibbons, a spokesman for the industry trade group the National Fisheries Institute. “It does no good to catch fish if it ends up just sitting on the dock.”

The bill also made a change long sought by lawmakers concerned with equalizing the tax code’s treatment of women and men: adding tampons and other menstrual-care products to the list of qualified medical expenses.

That means they could be purchased using pretax funds in health savings accounts, just as the law already allows for products ranging from condoms and pregnancy tests to Band-Aids.

TheCatt wrote: Leisher listed out many of the millions Dems were giving away, Republicans tucked in a $170bn tax cut for wealthy real estate developer s https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/investin ... index.html

Fed: Coronavirus job losses could total 47 million, unemployment rate to hit 32%