Young Discusses Next Coronavirus Relief Package As Hoosier Businesses Report Challenges

By Erica Irish 
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—As the Congress is expected to approve the next round of COVID-19 relief funding for Americans, U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, said his goal is to ensure the more than $484 billion in aid is used for the right reasons.

In a virtual press conference Thursday, Young addressed questions about inconsistencies in the first coronavirus relief package, which included payments to businesses and employees to support them during state-mandated shutdowns.

“It’s important these monies go towards their intended purpose,” Young said. “The intent of this program was to try and make whole businesses and our households. We want these employees who are sheltering in place or social distancing in response to public health mandates to have businesses to go back to.”

The U.S. Senate passed the new relief package Tuesday. It will allocate $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, an initiative to provide loans to business affected by COVID-19 shutdowns. The package also includes $75 billion in aid for hospitals and $25 billion for testing.

More than 515,000 Hoosiers have filed for unemployment over the last five weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened and state leaders issued a stay-at-home order, according to numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor Thursday. About 75,000 Hoosiers filed claims in the last week alone.

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce released results Thursday from a survey it devised to measure the consequences of the COVID-19 state shutdown on businesses. Around 1,393 business officials responded to the survey, which asked them to rank the impact of the pandemic on their business on a scale of 1 to 10. More than half — 56% of the respondents — rated the impact an 8, 9 or 10, according to the chamber.

The respondents also identified the biggest effects of the pandemic on their business, with 80% citing revenue loss as the leading challenge. Around 51% of respondents said they were most concerned about cash flow, while 34% cited suspended operations and 32% cited employee layoffs.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Indiana Chamber President and CEO Kevin Brinegar said in a statement. “Businesses and their employees are hurting. The survey reinforces the importance of resuming business activity as soon as possible, with the appropriate levels of safety in place.”

Young said he is prioritizing support for Hoosier businesses. But he also said he wants to ensure the relief package works toward its original mission: Keeping businesses viable and giving employers enough assistance to reopen.

In the press conference, Young said he didn’t want to see money in the next relief package “bail out” overspending by officials in states like Illinois, whose Democratic state senate leader recently asked for $41 billion in federal aid. This would include $10 billion in aid to Illinois’ pension system.

Young’s concern remains the subject of a debate between Democrats and Republicans in Washington. In a recent radio interview, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said any additional funds made available to state and local governments should be carefully monitored.

“What I do not want is this to turn into a bailout of those states and local governments who have been fiscally profligate over the years,” Young said. “What I don’t want is for the people of Indiana to have to pay the bills.”

FOOTNOTE: Erica Irish is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.