This overview is based on a summary of the bill provided to me by our Congressional delegation, newspaper reports, and my own review of just a couple sections of the bill text so far. I haven’t had time to read the whole bill yet. (It is 619 pages long.) The information is accurate to the best of my understanding at 6:00am on March 26 and is most certainly subject to updates and revision!

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My high-level summary of any given section below is going to raise a lot of questions: Does this apply to me? How do I request the aid? How much will I get? Should I take advantage of this section or that section of the bill or can I do both? How soon will the money be available? I have a lot of those same questions. Right now, I’m just not likely to be able to answer all of them for a few days until guidance is issued, and the programs are actually implemented. Patience, once again, is going to be required. I really hate writing that over and over again, but it is what it is. It’s going to take a bit of time to sort it all out. (And a reminder that this bill has not passed the House or been signed into law yet, so it literally cannot be implemented today!)

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Unemployment Insurance Expansion

The bill contains three key pieces of assistance on unemployment insurance that many of my readers have been asking about. The package:

·      Expands access to unemployment benefits to part-time, self-employed, and gig economy workers. This could be a big deal for Maine where we have many people who are self-employed and sole proprietors.

·      Increases the weekly benefit amount for each person collecting benefits by $600 a week for the next 4 months. This would also be huge as Maine’s entire maximum benefit is under $450 per week.

·      Extends benefits for an additional 13 weeks beyond the current maximum benefit period.

This is really good news. The language in the law is expansive with regard to who will be eligible. But the Maine Department of Labor has requested that self-employed people and others who have not paid into the unemployment insurance system hold off on applying until the expanded benefit is actually the law and a system is set up to accept their applications. That will help prevent claims from getting hung up in the unemployment computer system in a way that might delay the ability to claim self-employed benefits once the law is implemented. I have another briefing with the Department of Labor this week, and I’ll ask for more guidance on a timeline and instructions for people who are self-employed and have already applied and been denied.

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Small Business Rescue Plan

I am so relieved to say that the bill contains help for small businesses that is not simply in the form of “low-interest” loans! I’ll be drilling down into each of these programs in much more detail over the coming days, but here are the highlights:

·      Emergency grants (structured as an SBA “loan advance” that does not need to be repaid) of up to $10,000 per small business to pay for business operating costs.

·      6 months of principal and interest payment relief for businesses that currently have SBA-backed loans.

·      Loan forgiveness grants for small businesses that have not laid-off workers or that hire back their workers by June 2020.

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Direct Cash Payments to Taxpayers

The Treasury plans to pay out $1200 per taxpayer and $500 per child to most Americans. The full payment is available for individuals making up to $75,000 (single) and $150,000 (married). The amount of the payment begins decreasing above these income levels and phases out entirely for those making above $100,000 (single) and $200,000 (married). While it’s too soon to say exactly when the money will arrive, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has said he plans to get it out within 3 weeks.

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Student Loan Relief

The bill suspends payments on federal student loans for 6 months and ensures that interest does not accrue during that period. I’ll dig into this in a later update to determine whether the suspension of payments is automatic or whether folks need to apply for this relief.

Funding for Large Businesses, Public Health, Homelessness, Child Care and More

The bill also contains an enormous amount of federal funding for large businesses and critical programs, including funding for hospitals, affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs, and for states to help with child care assistance for health care and other essential workers during the crisis. There is money for testing and personal protective equipment. There’s also money for preparing states to vote by mail in the 2020 election cycle and emergency support for schools. I won’t focus on any of these elements here in my morning updates, as my purpose is to focus on the help available for small businesses and their teams, but I did want to note that the bill goes far beyond what I’ve summarized here.

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This is the first time in the last few weeks that I’ve felt hopeful that meaningful financial help from the federal government is really on the way. The details are not clear yet, and the bill is not yet the law, but I feel like we’re pointed in the right direction now. As always, send me your questions at heather.sanborn@legislature.maine.gov. We’ll work through this all together, day by day.

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Huge thanks to Representative Sanborn for taking the time to write this!