Sweeping virus bill headed for the Senate
WASHINGTON — Congress’ second piece of sweeping legislation aimed at tackling the coronavirus would provide paid sick leave to thousands — if not millions — of Texans, offer unemployment insurance to those who lose jobs during the pandemic and send the state a Medicaid boost estimated in the billions.
After a brief delay in the U.S. House of Representatives, where a Texas Republican on Monday threatened to stall it, the bill won final approval and was sent to the Senate, where it could pass as early as today.
Health professionals and economists say the interventions offered in the bill are crucial, especially in Texas, given the large population of those in need, and especially as social distancing becomes a vital part of combating the virus.
Questions remain
They say people aren’t going to stay home if it means losing paychecks. And putting money in people’s pockets will be key for bouncing back from an economic recession we seem headed toward.
“Really it’s pretty obvious: If you have a job and you get paid hourly and you don’t have any unemployment insurance or paid sick leave and you go down for three weeks, how do you pay your bills? How do you do anything?” said John Diamond, a Rice University economist.
But questions remain over how far the bill will actually go in offering some of those protections — especially paid sick leave, which has emerged as one of the main sticking points in the package.
The House bill requires employers to provide employees two weeks of paid sick leave — but only if they have 500 or fewer employees. That would appear to leave out many Texas employees — 4.6 million of whom work for private companies with 500 or more employees. Some of the nation’s biggest employers — and those employing low-income and hourly workers seen most at risk, such as fast food chains, grocery stores and other big retailers — don’t offer paid leave now.
“There’s this notion that you’re safe because you’re insured and you can do what you need to do, but unless you are living in a closet, you are exposed to other people, and if those people have to be in a workplace because that’s the only way they’re going to get paid, then what are we going to do about that?” said Elena Marks, president and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation in Houston.
As much as 40 percent of the Texas workforce lacks paid sick leave, according to at least one study. That study, done in March 2017 by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, found as many as 4.3 million Texas workers lack paid sick leave, and low-income and part-time workers are especially unlikely to be covered.
Texas Democrats said more needs to be done and blamed the Republicans, including the Trump administration, for the limits on paid sick leave. The bill was the culmination of lengthy negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Broader provisions
“I know that the Democratic leadership pushed the president and Mitch McConnell as hard as they could to include everyone and those guys wouldn’t budge,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, said.
Castro said he thinks broader sick leave provisions could be included in a future stimulus package coming in “the next weeks.”
Stronger action
“I hope that more paid sick leave will be included,” Castro said. “Remember, this was passed I think before some people who opposed broader measures see the full impact on the economy, and hopefully once they have a sense for just how badly our economy is going to get hit, they’ll be more open to taking stronger action.”
“Paid sick leave provisions must protect anyone whose own health, or the health of a loved one, is compromised by COVID-19, so no one has to choose between seeking care, providing care, and missing a paycheck,” U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a San Antonio Democrat, said.
U.S. Rep. Al Green, a Houston Democrat, said “this clause is something that we had to have to get this legislation passed currently.”
“My hope is that we’ll be able to do more. But this is a good first step,” he said.
In the meantime, Green said,
“it’s a time for employers to be good patriotic Americans and give these employees some consideration.”
Some Texas Republicans were also unhappy with the provision as written, however.
“The bill purports to help people by putting a massive mandate on small and medium-sized businesses while perpetuating the KStreet Corporate welfare cronyism Americans are sick of — exempting businesses over 500,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Central Texas Republican, wrote in The Federalist. “Worse yet, the mandate was to be paid later through tax credits, and the tax credits would not even cover it all.”
The nay votes
Roy was one of six Texas Republicans who voted against the bill, which passed in the wee hours on Saturday, complaining they were given little time to review the sweeping legislation.
President Donald Trump on Monday suggested the exemption for large employers would get another look before the bill passed the Senate, saying “we may very well be adding something on that.”
But the bill would do much more than just offer paid sick leave.
It includes billions for programs offering food to seniors and low-income residents, grants to states for unemployment insurance and would boost Medicaid funding for states, as well.
The Medicaid boost alone would send an extra $2.5 billion to Texas alone, if left in place through the end of the year, according to estimates by the leftleaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
When that might be is still up in the air.
Gohmert finally agrees
The House sent the bill to the Senate late Monday after U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, an East Texas Republican who also voted against the bill, spent much of the day threatening to hold up the measure.
Pelosi had planned to pass what Democrats had deemed “technical” changes to the bill with unanimous consent, but Gohmert had said he wouldn’t allow it without first seeing those changes. With the rest of the House out on a week-long recess, a single person had the power to stall it.
Gohmert said on the House floor Monday night that he was concerned the measure’s provisions would “overwhelm” small businesses.
He said he still has concerns, but nonetheless allowed it to move along.
“There’s no question in my mind at this point the, what are being called technical corrections, make the bill better than what it was when it got passed in the wee hours Saturday morning,” he said.