Congressman details costs of COVID-19

SANDPOINT — President Donald Trump signed legislation Friday that approved a $484 billion stimulus package for small businesses relief funds and aid for hospitals as well as other resources such as free COVID-19 testing to alleviate financial stress caused by the pandemic.

Idaho District 1 Rep. Russ Fulcher (R) voted on the D.C. floor with the majority of the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday, a vote of 388-5 in favor of the bill. Minutes before the final vote, Fulcher said he was in full support of the bill.

“This is the first time in history that I am aware of that the government whether the state, local, federal has made it illegal for some people to earn a living,” Fulcher said. “That is when you shut a business down, you cannot operate a business and that’s basically what we have done. When that happens then there is a real obligation for the government to facilitate some economic relief and that is what we are attempting to do.”

$310 billion of the package will be allocated to the Paycheck Protection Program, a program that will resume accepting applications on April 27. PPP is designed to give small business owners an incentive to keep their workers on payroll during the COVID-19 crisis.

So far the United States Small Business Administration has granted 1,661,367 loans to small business owners that meet all qualifications stated on their application. SBA has committed to forgiving all business loans that keep their employees on the payroll for at least eight weeks and use the borrowed money for payroll, rent, mortgage interest or utilities.

Fulcher encouraged business owners to apply for PPP immediately, and instructed owners to contact his office if they can’t find a lender willing to process the loans. Fulcher said he has identified a network of lenders that will help anyone, no prior relationship need.

Along with $310 billion in funding for PPP, the economic stimulus package reserved $60 billion for community banks and other small leaders, $75 billion for hospitals, $25 billion for research and testing and $60 billion to emergency disaster loans and grants.

Congress has now committed roughly $3 trillion in emergency spending to help protect U.S. citizens from the economic, health and social effects of the novel coronavirus. Despite Fulcher’s support for the bill, he said the government is struggling to meet the monetary needs of the country.

“The government was just never designed or intended to replace an economy, and that’s what we are asking it to do right now,” Fulcher said.

“Anytime the government is going to process, in this case $484 billion I can promise you there is going to be inefficiencies in it. I can promise you there is going to be some abuse that happens with it. Now, I can also promise you there is going to be a lot of people that are going to get it (economic relief) that really, really need it and it will be the difference of whether or not they keep the doors open for the next month … so that’s why we have to do it,” he said.

The United States has not only become a world leader in federal government spending for the novel coronavirus outbreak, but has also signed the biggest rescue deal in U.S. history when President Donald Trump approved the $2 trillion emergency relief bill in late March, a phase three stimulus approach known at the “Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.”

“Less than a month ago, we authorized a $2.2 trillion package and that has basically gone through. We are going to authorize another $300 billion today,” Fulcher said before the Thursday vote. “There are 700,000 applications in the pipeline already (for PPP) and at that rate that $300 billion will only last about a week.”

According to the Labor Department over 4.4 million Americans sought unemployment benefits last week and 26 million job claims have been received since March.

If the global pandemic lasts 18 months as previously predicted by health care officials, U.S. spending will likely exceed $5 trillion. Less conservative economists also expect a 24 percent decrease in the nation’s economy between April and June.

“It’s just not sustainable at this pace, Fulcher said. “You will see probably more stimulus spending before this is over, maybe a lot more, but at the end of the day it’s not our money anymore. It’s not even our children’s money, it’s probably our grandchildren’s money and that weighs on me a lot.”

This is the fourth measure Congress has approved since March 1 to confront coronavirus and the economic fallout. Congress is not scheduled to return to Washington until May 1, which begs the question – when is the next round of federal relief?

Lawmakers are talking about pursuing larger bills to try and contain the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Fulcher argued that remote government policies have substantially stalled progress during a critical time for policy making.

“The bottom line is when Congress is at home, only five people have a major role in these decisions. That’s (Michael) McCaul, (Chuck) Schumer, (Nancy) Pelosi, (Kevin) McCarthy and (Steven) Mnuchin. That’s where these deals are coming from and it’s not following regular order.”

Fulcher said his previous vote on March 13, against the Families First Coronavirus Act, was largely due to lack of preparedness in Congress, which he argued was a negative side effect of allowing the nation’s government to work from home during the pandemic.

“Not one person that voted that day saw the final product,” Fulcher said. “We voted on 1 a.m. in the morning on a Saturday morning, quite frankly because a lot of members wanted to go home.”

In addition, Fulcher said the majority of interaction with other members is on the phone, even when he is present at the D.C. office. He feels that COVID-19 has been used as an excuse for officials to simplify procedures.

“This is the United States Congress and I personally think that to some extent there are those in leadership who have kind of leveraged this illness or this virus as a smokescreen to keep things less complicated because let’s face it, when all of us are here and there is prolonged debate, it is more complicated,” Fulcher said. “It’s more adversarial but that’s the point. When we are doing massive policies right now, we should be here everyday going through it.

“We signed up for this job and there is a health risk, yes, but that’s our job.”

Fulcher said the most important thing to do is open the economy back up, as soon as it is deemed safe by health care officials. This suggestion follows Gov. Brad Littles four point plan for quickly restoring normal activity in Idaho. However, this four-phase approach goes against Fulcher’s localized approach by not allowing areas with low infection rates to advance faster.

“I support what the President is trying to do, which is localize the decision making because you simply can’t take the same approach in Idaho that you do in New York,’’ Fulcher said. “It’s not most efficient to take the same approach in Boundary County that you do in Ada County, it’s just two different environments and the more we can localize these decisions I think the better.”

No COVID-19 cases have been reported yet in Boundary County, Benewah or Shoshone along the Panhandle. Idaho has a total of 54 confirmed deaths and 1,870 cases of the novel coronavirus. No new deaths from COVID-19 have been reported at this time.

“You know we are the only nation on the planet that is truly expending a lot to try to protect people and you can make the argument that it’s the wrong thing to do or the right thing to do, but I can tell you because I am here first hand the intent is to try to protect people.”