Open letter to Congress

Dear editor:

An open letter to Arkansas’ congressional delegation:

We are Arkansas’ motor coach industry. We are family and independently owned businesses you represent, transporting

1.2 million of our residents and tourists annually across the region. We are visible in every community: connecting our rural towns to urban centers; assisting military transports, bringing tourists to our attractions; and evacuating citizens when natural disasters strike.

Before COVID-19, we employed nearly

291 hardworking individuals across Arkansas

and contributed $47 million in economic revenue. Like many transportation industries, that has all changed and virtually every bus company across America has stopped operating. We support the public health restrictions put in place to help flatten the spread of COVID-19, but when people emerge from this crisis, we want our employees to have jobs and bring visitors back here. But today, our future is very uncertain.

Before Congress left Washington, D.C., for a one-month hiatus, it passed a $2 trillion aid package to help large and small businesses. That package included nearly $100 billion for every mode of passenger transportation (airlines, Amtrak, transit) except for private buses. Our voice in Congress was ignored, leaving our industry and our employees on the side of the road.

As the federal government focuses on recovery, we urge you to remember that we bring your constituents to work; your kids on school trips; we take your church groups on tours; and we drive tourism in our state — literally. We connect America. If we go away, those experiences go away. We need your support now. Jason Richardson, J&T Charters LLC Scott Lumbert, Mountain Home Charter Services Jim Lienhart, Arrow Coach Lines Inc. Cary Martin, Little Rock Coaches and the entire Arkansas motor coach industry