Himes: Congress passing new relief bill is ‘very doable’
Lawmaker gives update on stimulus, COVID vaccine
STAMFORD — Congressman Jim Himes told constituents Wednesday that it was “embarrassing” Congress had not yet passed another stimulus bill to supplement the $2.2 trillion CARES Act signed into law in March.
But he has not given up hope of legislators agreeing on a new relief package in the final days of the current session.
Himes, a Democrat who was re-elected last month to a seventh term, argued in an online forum for new aid for families and businesses and outlined other priorities such as securing more funding for the state’s embattled mass transit
systems and tracking the upcoming distribution of coronavirus vaccines.
“The prospect for a follow-on CARES Act that is somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 billion — which is where (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell’s stated ‘ceiling’ is — and the roughly trillion dollars that a bipartisan group came up with is very doable,” Himes said in the forum, which was hosted by Stamford’s municipal government and the Stamford Chamber of Commerce.
Such a bill would “almost certainly” include additional lending to small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program, payouts to individuals and reauthorization of unemployment insurance, according to Himes.
“One sticking point, which is usually problematic, is that Mitch McConnell and a number of Republican senators have really dug in their heels against aid to states and municipalities,” Himes said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not going to be there because there are people like me and the (House) speaker (Nancy Pelosi) who are pointing out that’s really essential to the fiscal stability of our states and municipalities.
“I will tell you that I’m more confident today than I was last week when there were just no discussions or no proposals. And there is a great sense of urgency down here in Washington.”
Businesses across the state are keen to see new funding that would add to the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which comprises one of the CARES Act’s most important components.
Approximately $6.7 billion worth of PPP funding, divided among about 61,000 loans, was approved earlier this year for Connecticut-based firms. The total included about 8,600 loans ranging from $150,000 to $10 million, for a total of nearly $5 billion. Loans of less than $150,000 comprised the remaining $1.8 billion that was shared among firms in the state.
Most of those loans could be forgiven if businesses meet certain requirements, which include spending 60 percent of the allotments on payroll expenses.
“Not everything is forgivable, and there was a cap on that amount that would be forgivable (in the first PPP round),” Himes said. “But we’re working really hard to make it almost automatic that for those smaller loans forgivability would be granted.”
A new stimulus bill would make the greatest impact if it focused on helping “Main Street,” said Thomas Madden, Stamford’s economic development director.
“In terms of getting people to be able to stay in their homes and save that storefront, I think that’s probably the most important thing I can leave you with and what I’m hearing from all our businesses here in Stamford and Fairfield County,” Madden said.
Stamford Mayor David Martin agreed, adding, “I strongly believe additional federal stimulus is needed.”
At the same time, city and Chamber of Commerce officials urged community members to continue supporting locally owned businesses.
“Our businesses are counting on your support to make it to the other side,” said Heather Cavanagh, the chamber’s CEO and president. “It’s really critical that we continue to shop locally, especially now.”
Among other priorities for Connecticut’s Fourth Congressional District, which covers most of Fairfield County, Himes said he would fight to secure more funding for mass transit.
Last month, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials warned their system, which includes Metro-North Railroad, would face massive cuts, including a 50 percent reduction in service on Metro-North, if it does not receive $12 billion in federal aid.
“There will need to be aid, in some form or another, to Metro-North and to mass-transit all over the country,” Himes said. “Particularly as we’ve seen a dramatic influx of people — probably most notably into Stamford — it is not acceptable that either the quality of service would decline or that the expense would dramatically increase. That does not work. I will go to ‘war’ on that one.”
Himes said he was also closely monitoring plans for the coming distribution of coronavirus vaccines, a process he expected to launch later this month.
“Gradually, in the weeks and months that come, the vaccinations will become available to people in order of risk,” Himes said. “Presumably elderly people with preexisting conditions and comorbidities would be at the front of the line. These are people who are dramatically more likely to suffer a fatality if they contract the disease. And on down (with distribution) to those who have a lower probability of suffering a really adverse outcome.
“The projections that I see suggest that the industrial project of producing enough vaccines to vaccinate all Americans is probably a three-to-six-month project.”