Stimulus bill includes over $350B to support small businesses
Yahoo Finance’s Jessica Smith joins the On The Move panel to break down the details of the new stimulus bill.
Video Transcript
- Let's get some more details now on this stimulus package. And for that, we're joined by Jessica Smith in DC. Jess, it sounds like that the Democrats, which had been-- they had been sort of holding firm on several items, mostly got their way on those items.
JESSICA SMITH: Yeah. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has really kind of been taking a victory lap. He did say that it's not a celebration. He says this is a necessity. But he did say that Democrats were able to secure a lot of provisions that they were pushing for. We heard from Speaker Pelosi saying that the deal is not perfect, but it is much better than it was at the beginning from the Democratic perspective.
We know this is going to include direct payments to Americans, $500 billion for industries that are hard hit, more than $350 billion for small businesses. Much of that will be loans that do not have to be paid back as long as that money is going towards payroll, for paid sick leave, those kinds of costs during this time.
We have also learned some more details about the other oversight provisions that Democratic lawmakers have pushed for. We know there's going to be an Inspector General and then a committee overseeing this assistance going out to corporations. And there's also a provision, according to the Democratic leader, that companies controlled by the president, the vice president, members of Congress, or Treasury officials cannot get certain assistance from Treasury.
So those are some of the provisions that we've learned about so far. We're still waiting to see the final text. The Senate is expected to vote at some point this afternoon. It is not looking likely that the House will vote today. They have already gaveled in and gaveled out. So we'll be looking for any word on Speaker Pelosi on how she'll handle things once this bill moves over to the House.
- Jess, thank you very much. Jess, let me get your take real quick, as well, on-- most of what you discussed are the sort of Main Street provisions of this, right? People will be getting checks. That is, people who make under a certain income threshold, for example, the small business provisions you talked about. What about the big corporate industry help that a lot of different industries, including the airlines, had been calling for?
- We are learning a little more about the help going toward airlines. Senator Pat Toomey did call with reporters, and then Democratic leader Chuck Schumer did put out some details about how the Democrats see these airline provisions. Senator Toomey says that there will be $25 billion for passenger airlines. He says there will be $4 billion for cargo airlines and $17 billion for companies related to national security. Now, he did push back on the idea that that would be all for Boeing.
Another interesting point here is this money is supposed to go towards employees' wages, salaries, and benefits. And it doesn't look like these companies will necessarily have to pay that money back. We're still learning more about this, but it doesn't look like this will be loans for airlines. It looks like this could be grants. Senator Schumer did say in his details, he said that they have prohibited airlines from buybacks and CEO bonuses. So that's just a look at some of what we're hearing. Hopefully, we'll get more details when the text actually comes out.
