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Coronavirus recovery bill doesn't violate conservative principles, says Arkansas GOP congressman

The Washington Times
03/21/2020

Rep. French Hill bucks charges that his party’s $1 trillion coronavirus economic rescue package that stalled in the Senate on Sunday night is a bailout. Or a stimulus bill. Or a retreat from the Republican Party’s embrace of fiscal conservatism.

“This is not an economic stimulus bill, this is an economic preservation bill,” he told The Washington Times. “We’re not attempting to stimulate the economy. We’re attempting to save the economy from a black swan, external shock.”

Senate Democrats, looking for a broader expansion of unemployment benefits and skeptical of corporate assistance in the package, blocked the bill on a procedural vote Sunday.

But Republicans are also fending off criticism of the bill from the right.

Mr. Hill, an Arkansas Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, said the bill’s loan guarantees and lifelines for businesses in need of capital are in line with conservative economic philosophy, particularly when financial hardships arise from a public health crisis rather than irresponsible business practices.

Mr. Hill called Senate Republicans’ proposed package “a reasonable response” on the part of Congress.

“You’re in a global public health pandemic. It hasn’t been faced in the developed world certainly in my lifetime,” he said. “This is not an opportunity to create more government permanent spending.”

The Republicans’ four-part plan would extend loans to small businesses, send checks to the American public, provide major support to hard-hit industries and deliver more taxpayer funds to the overly strained healthcare system.

Under the proposal, the government would provide about $1,200 to Americans making up to $75,000 a year. The handouts would then be scaled down for those earning between $75,000 and $99,000 and would provide $500 per child.

A $230 billion loan plan would help eligible small businesses make payroll and cover other operating expenses to keep the companies and their employees afloat.

Another $208 billion in loans would go to industries hardest hit by the crisis: $50 billion for airlines, $8 billion for cargo air carriers and $150 billion for other eligible entities.

In all, the phase-three bill is expected to cost more than $1 trillion. That’s on top of the billions spent in the first two packages.

The first preparedness and response bill was signed into law by President Trump on March 6 and cost $8.3 billion. The second package that targeted relief at workers was signed by the president Wednesday and cost more than $100 billion.

Mr. Hill said he was open to “creative” solutions such as the cash handouts, but he would prefer Congress focus on supporting small businesses, especially through local banks and other financial institutions. That way, he argued, there’s less need to funnel money into unemployment benefits and ensure workers keep their jobs.

“So I think the most important thing we can do is get money in the hands of the job creators and in the hands of employers so they can keep more people working and they don’t have to be laid off, but we’re behind the curve on that,” he said.

Mr. Hill said Republican lawmakers in the House are looking at lowering interest rates for small business loans, expanding eligibility for refinancing, and expediting express loans for small businesses.

Mr. Hill is also concerned that small businesses will face overwhelming issues with troubled debt restructuring as they try to move around their limited funds, so he’s calling for regulatory direction to mitigate that in the stimulus package.

While working in the Treasury Department under President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Hill saw first hand how that type of regulatory approach had a “cascading negative effect” during the 1991 recession.

But to pass any new package, lawmakers are faced with balancing the health risks posed by the very virus they need to legislate against.

As of last week, two lawmakers — Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams of Utah — announced they had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Both were at the House’s vote last Saturday.

Staffers in Senate and House offices have revealed they tested positive for the disease and dozens of lawmakers have closed their offices and told staff to work from home.

In both chambers, rank-and-file members are pushing leadership to find ways for them to vote remotely, though both Democrat and Republican leaders are reluctant to make such dramatic rule changes.

Congress’ rules forbid remote voting under any circumstances and it hasn’t happened in the more than 230-year history of the institution.

Mr. Hill, for one, isn’t concerned about in-person voting conflicting with social distancing guidelines. He said new voting procedures allow for members to trickle into the chamber rather than gathering all at once.

“I think people know how to take good care of themselves from a hygiene point of view and the travel back and forth,” he said. “If they have good basic health and don’t have any health conditions personally that would compromise that I think we can conduct our constitutional duties and do it in a safe way.”